


Soft Reset

by quaphren



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, F/M, Guardian!Marinette, Hawkmoth gets beat up, Ladybug!Felix, Lila Rossi Redemption, Lila gets beat up, Sort Of, Time Shenanigans, Time Travel, canon who? never heard of her, no beta we die like emilie, not dead yet, slow burn maybe?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:08:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 44,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22029835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quaphren/pseuds/quaphren
Summary: The day started off normally when it really shouldn't have.Mostly, it shouldn't have started at all. As far as she could remember, the encounter with Hawkmoth has left a nasty hole in her stomach that no Miraculous Cure could save. By all accounts, Ladybug--and, by extension, Marinette Dupain-Cheng--should have been dead. She shouldn't have been laying in bed, wrapped in pink blankets and surrounded by pink walls littered with pinned designs, with her mother's call to get ready for school.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Félix
Comments: 71
Kudos: 562





	1. Origins pt. 1

The day started off normally when it really shouldn't have.

Mostly, it shouldn't have started at all. As far as she could remember, the encounter with Hawkmoth has left a nasty hole in her stomach that no Miraculous Cure could save. By all accounts, Ladybug--and, by extension, Marinette Dupain-Cheng--should have been dead. She shouldn't have been laying in bed, wrapped in pink blankets and surrounded by pink walls littered with pinned designs, with her mother's call to get ready for school.

_ School. _ How long had it been since she last went to school? Just how far had she been sent back?

With another cry from Sabine, Marinette reached up and felt her ears. Felt the empty holes in them because, once upon a time, she was determined to make her own earrings to match her designs.

"Fuck, guys, how far back did you send me?" Marinette hissed as she got out of bed with a third, and probably final, call from Sabine. She shouted, "I'll be right down, Mom!" before climbing down the ladder that seemed all too big to what she was used to.

Or maybe that was just her own body? She had grown in the eight years it had taken to encounter Hawkmoth, and had become more powerful in the following two to confront him again.

When Luka and Alix had said he was sending her back to before the Chat Noir incident, she didn't think he meant this. If her mental timeline was right, and she was positive it was now that she didn’t have the Miraculous, then Second Chance had sent her back to before Chat Noir. Before Hawkmoth.

Before Ladybug.

“No no  _ no _ !” Marinette tugged at her hair as her thirteen-year-old body put her hair into pigtail she hadn’t worn since collège. “Hawkmoth  _ knew _ . Even if I were to do things differently, he is too strong. I can’t hold onto the Miraculous without putting myself at risk, but I’m the only one who can stop this.”

She needed to talk to Tikki. If Marinette could remember, Tikki could.

Her first instinct was the Miraculous Box. A quick glance at her desk banished that idea immediately. She needed to play this out. Encounter Fu, just like she had a decade ago.

With that thought in mind, Marinette climbed from her room. Her mother was waiting there, a smile on her face and Marinette’s bag held out. Marinette grabbed it and smiled at Sabine.

“Are you ready for school?” Sabine asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” It was as truthful an answer as she could get without outright saying  _ no _ .

“Oh, don’t be like that. I doubt they would stick you in the same class as Chloe four years in a row.” No, they would. Marinette was actually looking forward to it though. Chloe had gotten much better after the first few years of Hawkmoth’s appearance. Dealing with her and Sabrina at this point in the timeline wouldn’t be fun, but she could make it.

“I don’t think there are enough students that they can mix it up  _ that _ much, Mom,” Marinette responded as she moves into the kitchen. A box was already set out for her. The macarons that changed everything, in away. She opened the lid and ignored the rumble in her stomach. When was the last time her past-self had eaten?

The macarons were colorful and smelled delicious. “These look so good, Dad. I’m sure the class will love them.” Hopefully, she could spare them this time. She could remember the fallen macarons from when she helped Fu.

“Thanks, sweetie. Your design makes it all come together though.”

Eh, the design was okay. With ten years more experience and an awful, grueling two-year internship under Gabriel Agreste, Marinette was positive that she could do better in her sleep.

“Well, I should get going. I don’t want to be late on the first day.” The  _ again _ went unspoken. Tom gave her a quick hug, careful not to crush the macarons, and with a grace that was trained into her from a decade of Miraculous training, Marinette left the bakery without nearly dropping them.

Fu was right where she thought he would be. He stood at the crosswalk with his cane, looking completely normal as he glanced both ways before taking that first step. Her mind went through the options of her approach. 

Ask him to give her the Miraculous now? Would he even have it on him? It would be suspicious, but he was a guardian and could probably sense the Ladybug Miraculous dripping off her like the Turtle Miraculous was for him. Would she even have that infusion of magic, though, when this body had yet to touch the Miraculous? Or would she be covered with the Snake and Rabbit, which Fu wouldn’t reveal for another year or so?

Then again, she could also take it from him. While she could see the Turtle Miraculous on his wrist, years of sneaking around the main building of the  _ Gabriel _ line had significantly increased her skill. There was still the issue of if he even had the earrings with him, too.

The engine of a car broke her out of her thoughts. Of course, this would have to play out like normal. She started running, careful with the box, and grabbed his hand to guide him faster.

“Sorry about that, sir,” she apologized right as they meet the curb. The box was still safe in one hand while her other hand held his. “I hope I didn’t startle you.”

“No, no, that is fine.” He nodded at her and stroked his beard in a way that Marinette would have thought as sagely if he hadn't left after two years.

“Here, let me at least apologize with one of these.” She opened the box and offered a macaron to him. While he took one, Marinette looked him over. There were no obvious lumps in his pockets that could be a Miraculous Box, and she wasn’t about to frisk an old man to steal a powerful god of creation from him.

“These are delicious. Thank you,” Fu nodded at her right as the second bell for school rang in the distance.

“Ah, that’s my bell. I’ve got to go.” Marinette mentally cursed. She would have to wait for Hawkmoth to send out the akuma, then. There was no way she could skip school and follow Fu around all day. “Please make sure to stay safe crossing the roads. I don’t think I’ll be able to do any more good-deeds from school.” She ran off before he could reply.

* * *

The class was only half-full when Marinette arrived. Chloe and Sabrina were already sitting where Marinette and Alya normally would. The blonde had a smug look on her face as she examined her nails, but Marinette didn’t miss the way that she glanced at the door when she walked in. The atmosphere was calm and relaxed though. It made Marinette want to cry. Not only was Chloe there and  _ alive _ , but so was Alya, Nino, Kim, and Max. Alix would probably come in later. Seeing everyone, nearly the full team, was a weight off her shoulders.

“Nino, why don’t you sit in the front this year?” Mme. Bustier asked. The turtle holder--though, she guessed that it wasn’t his title yet--groaned but offered no argument. He sat right by the door and gave a single, short nod to Marinette as he sat.

“Hey, Chloe. Mixing it up this year?” Marinette tried to sound positive, but she could feel the eyes on her. Nearly everyone was in the same seats as always.

“Of course I am, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe scoffed. She stood and pointed to the seat right in front of her, “Adrien is going to be coming in today and  _ that _ is going to be his seat, so I’m going to sit here.”

“Oh, that’s fine. I just figured that it might be easier to talk to him from across the aisle.” Marinette shrugged and set her bag down beside Alya, who finally glanced up from her phone. She was texting someone, Marinette noted. Probably one of her sisters since the Ladyblog wasn’t started yet. “I mean, you’re talking about Adrien Agreste, the model, right?”

“Uh, yes? What rock have you been under?” Chloe snapped. The response was enough though. Marinette knew that she had the blonde’s attention.

“Sorry, just trying to figure out why you would put your friend in a position where he would constantly have to turn around to talk to you. I mean, wouldn’t that mess up his back a bit? If you only have the aisle between you, you can just sort of talk and stuff.”

Chloe froze. Sabrina froze. Marinette slowly sat down beside Alya and tapped her shoulder. “You might want to grab your stuff,” she whispered to her soon-to-be best friend, “Chloe’s about to give us a much better spot than this.”

More people entered the room right as Chloe shot up from the seat. Juleka, with her hair still covering her eye and not a single ounce of the courage Marinette and Luka had helped her find. Nathaniel, clutching an old sketchpad to his chest instead of one of several books he and Marc would trade back and forth for their project.

“Then give me back that seat! I can’t hurt my Adrikins like that!” Chloe grabbed Sabrina, who held both their things, and tugged the girl out of the seat. “Both of you, move.”

“I thought you were mixing it up this year, Chloe? There’s no shame in sticking with your decision if you really want to.” Now she was just shaking the hornet’s nest, but the look on Chloe’s face, as well as the few people actually paying attention to the conversation, was worth it. Chloe mellowed out with the years, so teasing her like this was refreshing.

“Move it, Dupain-Cheng, before I call Daddy and have him make you.” Marinette held up her hands in surrender and motioned for Alya to follow her as she stood.

“If you insist, Chloe.” She smiled at the blonde and picked up the box of macarons. Before she could move any further, Chloe smacked the box out of her hands. Marinette had seen smoother attacks from Lila before, better-hidden intentions from Rose hiding a birthday surprise for Juleka before, but it still made her heart jump.

“Hey!” Alya finally spoke with the passion that fueled Rena Rogue. “What was that for?”

“What?” Chloe fluttered her eyelashes. “I did nothing. At least, nothing uncalled for.” She slid into the seat while Marinette worked to salvage the macarons.

Did they need to get destroyed in every timeline? Was it a warning of the future, that being sent back was in vain?

“Don’t think you’ve won, Dupain-Cheng. You aren’t as smart as you look.”

_ Don’t think you’ve won. _

_ Take a deep breath, Mari _ , she had to remind herself. Her lungs didn’t listen to her demand.  _ He isn’t here, not yet. You won’t meet him in person for years. You’re fine. _

A hand touching hers brought her out of her mind. Darker and barely touched by dyed-red ends that hung down. “Hey, girl, let me help you so we can get to our seat.”

Marinette finally took a deep breath. Alya carefully, almost as if sensing that Marinette was on the verge of panicking, helped her put the broken macarons back into the box.

“T-thank you…” Marinette hesitated to continue. It was hard looking at Alya, even though seeing her up and moving was comforting. If she looked for too long, she could see the wound visible through torn clothes. A body slumped against a wall. She’d have to get over it, at least until she could properly explain herself to  _ everyone _ .

“Alya,” she supplied. Marinette nodded and finally stood up, focusing on the macarons as they sat.

“Marinette. Thanks for helping me out with that. You really didn’t have to.”

“Of course I did. Evil people win when good people do nothing and that girl,” Alya pointed at Chloe, “is definitely evil. That makes us the good people.”

“Let’s hope this,” Marinette held out one of the few remaining macarons, “is as good as we are. To our friendship?”

Alya grabbed onto the macaron and broke it in half. The snap was soft and comforting, and the feel of the macaron snapping in her hand seemed to whisper to Marinette  _ She is safe _ . “To our friendship.”

* * *

Marinette already knew the information. It wasn’t even information she could have learned in school during the next ten years. This was the first day of school and everything was just  _ introduce yourself _ and  _ here are the rules _ and  _ get this signed and turned in _ . So Marinette thought. She thought about the plan, about what she should do.

Hawkmoth would figure out Ladybug’s identity. Marinette had gotten too close. Thinking through it, there was no way to not get close, not without raising suspicions from her family of why fashion is suddenly forbidden in the house.

So she couldn’t keep the Miraculous. It was too risky and she was here to save people, not put them down the same path. Someone else would have to fill in as Ladybug. She would have to give it over between receiving the Miraculous and encountering Stoneheart as well. There was nobody she could remember that was adaptable with the Ladybug Miraculous, though. She had tried to find someone after the Chat Noir incident happened, so she knew that no one was capable. At least, not anyone in the class.

So she meditated. She was still a guardian after all, and running into someone on the street wasn’t the only way to sense the soul of a Miraculous user.

The Fox, Bee, and Turtle were the strongest around her. Then, a bit further away, were the Horse, Rabbit, and Monkey. Even further were the Dragon, Snake, and Cat. Then, in what felt like le Grand Paris, she felt it. A shifting soul that was adaptable. A soul that, if she didn’t act fast, would leave.

That was where she would have to go. She just hoped that she could drop off the box and escape as a civilian without being revealed so soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've told no one about this at all. I'm not big on the posting scene, but I love Felinette. That being said, not a lot of Felinette in this chapter. It'll ramp up, eventually. I'll try and get as much of this out as I can before schools starts back up for me, but here is this demon thing with unpredictable release schedules. Feed off this as I feed off other Felinette works. Thanks for even looking at it, that is so much more than I could have hoped for.


	2. Origins pt. 2

Somewhere in Paris, a monster of stone and rage searched for a boy while a nosy reporter trailed after.

Somewhere in Paris, a man with a butterfly brooch laughed as he waited for new players on the scene, unaware that a cat was sharpening claws right beneath his roof.

Somewhere in Paris, a blond boy half-heartedly unpacked boxes, unaware of the small god that was about to be given to him.

Marinette carefully opened the small Miraculous Box as her parents worried about Ivan downstairs. After holding onto the true Miraculous Box for so long, changing out the kwamis so each of them could have some time on the field, the bright light that enveloped the kwami was no shock to Marinette.

“Hel-” Tikki began, only to be cut off by her chosen.

“We don’t have time for this, Tikki,” Marinette spoke fast. “This is extremely important and we can’t waste any time. Do you remember me?”

It was the question of the day, maybe the question of the next ten years if Marinette was unable to change anything.

Tikki hesitated a bit before responding, “You’re my chosen.” She said it like it was obvious, but Marinette’s heart fell all the same. “Normally I would introduce myself, but you seem to already know that.”

“But you don’t know who I am. Like, my name or anything?”

“I’m afraid not, but I would appreciate an introduction.”

Marinette was already putting in the earrings as Nadja Chamack started reporting on the akumatized Ivan. “We don’t have time, we need to get you to someone else.”

“Someone else? I haven’t even explained the Miraculous, you can’t just reject it.” Tikki flew right up into Marinette’s face. The designer just stared back.

“I need to reject it to save people. Tikki, spots on.”

The change was instantaneous. This body hadn’t experienced the power of a Miraculous yet and the power was wonderful. The outfit was her usual red spandex, a nostalgic change from the past two years--or was it next eight? Only one yoyo, no belt, no staff. It was all part of what Alya had called _Ladybug Alpha_ after the Chat Noir incident.

Now she had to be careful. Muscle memory was nonexistent and it had been so long since she last worked with something so simple regarding the Miraculous. Still, Ladybug stood on the balcony and threw her yoyo as far as it would go in the direction of Le Grand Paris, the small Miraculous Box in hand. She needed to hurry to the new Ladybug, whoever they may be, would have time to help Chat with Stoneheart.

* * *

Félix Culpa had been keeping a list of the pros and cons of Paris. The main pro was his mother’s joy whenever she looked out the window of their new home and stared at the Eiffel Tower, the place where she had first met his father. The biggest con was that blonde girl who also lived in the building. A spoiled rich girl who threatened him with words like “lower class” and “Adrikins”, whatever that met.

Watching the news with Bridgette as they took a break from unpacking their boxes, Félix was afraid that there was a new con at the top of the list. Bridgette had never mentioned rampaging beasts during her recollections of her youth. While it didn’t upset Félix--he would be happy to leave the hotel and the mayor’s daughter behind--it did make him sad to see his mother so upset.

“Félix, honey,” Bridgette began as the reporter on screen was chased away by the stone beast, “can you go to your room for a bit? I need to make a few calls.”

 _A few calls_ meant, in Félix’s mind, _figure out what is going on_.

“Of course. I’ll return to unpacking.” He stood and returned to his room without another word.

Everything was as he left it. A plain bedspread was over a brand new mattress, covered by cardboard boxes of clothes and books that he had been too proud to get rid of when they moved. A journal and a few writing utensils were already unpacked and placed onto a small desk by the window that overlooked the city. A half-full cup of water created a ring of condensation on a plain coaster and the whole scene was pulled together by the red and black box placed atop his current journal.

“What?” That hadn’t been there when Bridgette called him in to see the news. He didn’t own anything like that.

It was still a box, and the contents were usually more interesting than the exterior itself.

The lid popped open by itself when he touched it, like some cruel joke, and Félix stood still as a small ball of light rose up from the octagonal box. He blinked right as it flashed and, almost like the light was the joke and not the box, there was… something floating in front of him. Small and red with two antennae and a big black spot on its forehead.

“Hello,” it said slowly. “Please don’t freak out, I really don’t know what is going on.”

“Alright.” He wouldn’t freak out. His mother was in the next room dealing with a rampaging stone monster, he didn’t need to bother her with this small creature that he could easily take care of himself.

‘Good, good. You’re already doing a lot better than her… I think.” the creature hesitated then, as something thudded on the TV, flew up a bit higher to meet his sight better. “I’m Tikki and I’m a kwami. We need to get moving and stop that akuma.” It spoke faster now like it truly did know what was going on.

“Kwami? Akuma?” No, it--Tikki, he corrected, names were important--said _stop._ “So you mean stop the monster?”

“Yes!” She nodded with a proud smile on her face. “Kwamis lend power to people to stop creatures like the akuma destroying Paris. All you have to do is put on the earrings and say _spots on_ to use the power.”

Félix finally looked down into the box. A pair of ladybug earrings rested inside, lightly shimmering with the power that had revealed the kwami.

“Can no one else do it?” Leaving his mother to become some sort of superhero wasn’t big on his list of things to do.

“You weren’t the first chosen,” the kwami admitted. “She gave me to you, though, and we don’t have time to find someone else. Just put the earrings on and say the phrase. All you have to do is destroy the item possessed by the akuma and capture it,” she explained as he put in the earrings.

“Is there anything else?” There had to be. The kwami was making it seem easy enough, there should have been no reason for someone to pass it on to him of all people.

“You have a power, Lucky Charm. You can use it once, but after you use it you have five minutes before you become a civilian again. It’ll give you whatever you need for the goal in mind”

That didn’t seem too bad. “Got it, let me just…” He quickly moved over to lock the door. “Okay, that should keep her out. Tikki,” he looked over at the kwami as a crashing noise came from the television on the other side of the door, “spots on.”

The change was immediate. He looked down at himself, trying to understand how, exactly, he had gone from comfortable slacks and one of his nicer shirts to a skin-tight, though padded, red and black suit. It fit well, all things considered, but the only explanation that came to mind was _magic_ , and that was entirely too displeasing.

He looked around for Tikki and then pieces together. Kwamis lend their power, so it made sense for her to disappear when he powered up.

Another crash and this time a scream. Félix quickly moved to one of the large windows and opened it up. His hand, almost like it was moved by the suit itself, brushed against something round on his hip. A yoyo.

“This is absolutely ridiculous.” Still, he grabbed it and got in a position to throw it. The question was just where to throw it.

There, on the horizon heading toward what looked like a stadium. A black dot balanced on the thinnest line of silver Félix had ever seen arced across the sky. It certainly wasn’t the monster, but if one hero rose to solve this issue, then the chances of another hero being present weren’t so low.

With a short huff at yet another con added to his list of Paris, Félix swung out the window and toward the stadium.

* * *

Marinette checked her phone as she left Le Grand Paris. Alya was live-streaming the attack from within the stadium. Kim ran across the field and Stoneheart was not far behind.

Marinette remembered bits and pieces of the battle. The thing she remembered most was failing to catch the akuma the first time, but she had seen what should have been the messy room of a boy moving in. All the boxes were meticulously packed and taped with no bumps or crooked lines. His bed sheets were pulled taut and were pressed to the point where she couldn’t see any wrinkles at the corners of the bed. Even the desk, which was the only thing decorated, was spotless save for the wet coaster he had left behind. As long as Tikki mentioned purifying the akuma, he wouldn’t mess up like she did.

Would Alya be in danger though? The girl had been so reckless before becoming a full member of the team. She had used Alya to help, didn’t she? Would the new Ladybug--or whatever name he would choose--do that?

“I should have thought this through better,” Marinette muttered as she started running toward the stadium the collège used to their more physical classes. She didn’t have a class there right now, but other people did. Kim did, specifically, and that was definitely Stoneheart’s target. That hadn’t changed at all. She just needed to make sure that the change in Ladybug wouldn’t change anything too much.

She got to the field right as Stoneheart broke through the other end. Her classmates ran past her, uncaring that she was facing the danger. Alya was already crouched at an entryway, phone out to record.

“Alya!” Marinette nearly yelled. The redhead turned to look but kept the camera as stationary as possible.

“Hey, girl. I didn’t think you would follow me here. I saw him going through there,” she pointed to the other end of the field at the slowly approaching Stoneheart and cowering Kim, “and figured that I could get a better angle from here. Isn’t this so cool? I mean, real-life heroes and villains! At our school! If I had known this would happen, I would have changed schools way sooner.”

“Trust me, this hasn’t happened before,” Marinette frowned. It happened too often after this. “You need to be careful though. Just hiding won’t keep you safe. He’s a big guy and if he runs into a wall or something, it’ll come crashing down on you.”

“Oh please,” Alya scoffed. “I am perfectly aware of my surroundings. I know enough about how this stuff works, I won’t be that one reporter who always gets caught up in accidents.”

Right as she said it, as though Hawkmoth was listening in on their conversation, the metal goal bounced off the field and towards them. Marinette moved on instinct, lunging at Alya with a short scream of “Look out!”

She had forgotten that Chat would throw his staff. And, once she realized that Chat was still a thing right now, she remembered that the goal would bounce _forward_ , right where they were laying.

 _This is it_ , Marinette thought. _This is how Hawkmoth takes us out in this timeline. This wouldn’t have happened if I had just kept the Miraculous._

A sharp and familiar noise pulled Marinette out of her fear like it pulled the goal away from the two girls. A shiny red yoyo wrapped around one of the poles that formed the goal and drug it over to where the two heroes stood.

Marinette looked at the new Ladybug. The suit was just as plain as her own had been, a simple red and black pattern formed out of small blocks of fabric that allowed for better maneuverability in the suit. She could see where padding was for protection, but he didn’t look too bad overall. His hair was messier than hers had ever been, almost reminiscent of Chat. Steel eyes bounced between Stoneheart and the two girls.

She didn’t look at Chat. She would see him tomorrow if things went fine. Seeing Adrien Agreste first, seeing the boy without the mask, would be easier.

“I’d take your friend’s advice, reporter,” the new Ladybug carefully said. “I don’t think akuma like this are meant to be recorded like animals.”

“Akuma, is that what this is?” Alya immediately jumped on the information and moved her phone so that it was recording the boys instead.

“Alya, not now, please!” Marinette tugged on her friend’s shoulder as Kim ran to join up with them. At least, she thought he would. He was a coward without the Monkey Miraculous and ran past them to the exit. Marinette didn’t miss the flash of a purple butterfly over Stoneheart’s eyes. They didn’t have to worry about him leaving them to chase after Kim.

“Bug, he looks like he’s about to charge,” Chat took a battle stance, facing away from the girls. He was so small now, but so full of energy. It was as refreshing as it was saddening.

“We need a plan and to get them,” Bug gestured to the girls, “out of here.”

“No need, check this out.” He was still going to do it, wasn’t he? “Cataclysm!”

It was weird experiencing the power of Cataclysm without holding a Miraculous. She couldn’t feel the wave of destructive power as it wrapped around Chat’s claw. She could see smoke rise up from all of his fingers, nearly surrounding his hand, but it wasn’t as pronounced as the bubbles of corruption that covered the goal as he touched it, causing it to crumble into dust as soon as Bug pulled his yoyo free.

“Are you stupid?” Bug shouted as Chat ran forward, intent on touching Stoneheart and defeating the beast. He threw the yoyo and it wrapped around Chat as he touched Stoneheart’s foot. The hero was pulled back in time to not be crushed beneath a rocky fist. “Those powers only work once. Didn’t your kwami explain this to you?”

“No? He told me the phrase and I had to get going…” Chat admitted. Marinette felt annoyance she thought had died years ago rise up in her. She could only imagine how Bug felt.

“We only have one shot to use our powers and then we have five minutes. We need to break something and capture the akuma.”

Neither of them had been at school. Ivan had been akumatized by Kim’s note, which was clutched in his fist during school. Neither of them could know that.

“Girl, this is so cool! They’ve got powers and timers and everything!” Alya excitedly said beside Marinette. The redhead took a few steps forward to get a better shot of the duel heroes.

“Mister Bug,” Marinette spoke up. The two heroes looked at her and she did her best to only look at her replacement. “If you’re looking for an object, it might be in his hand.” She closed a fist and demonstrated. “Ivan was sent to the principal’s office with a note after class right before he turned into _that._ ”

“Okay, so we just have to open his fist. No big deal, right Bug?” Chat smiled and twirled his baton around.

“And how do you propose we do that?” Bug snapped back.

“Well, you still have a power, don’t you?”

“Look, we really don’t have time to discuss this,” Marinette cut in. Stoneheart was approaching far faster than she would have liked. “Do something or not, it looks like he wants you guys now. It doesn’t look like Alya’s going to stop recording anytime soon,” the young reporter turned the camera on Marinette at the mention, “so you can either do nothing while two civilians are present or actually try and stop the akuma.”

“Fine, I’ll use it,” Bug huffed. He gripped the yoyo tightly and prepped to throw.

“Oh my gosh, girl, this is going to be so good!” Alya squealed, swinging her phone so it was facing Bug as he shouted “Lucky Charm!”

A loose rubber hose fell into his hands in a blur of sparkles and transparent ladybugs.

“What is a hose supposed to do?” Chat asked. Marinette finally looked up at him, a frown on her face. He hadn’t changed physically, but he definitely wasn’t as easy going with his new partner as he was with her. It still hurt to see him like this, but it was a good hurt. She could change this.

Bug looked around before nodding with a smile. “Go distract the beast--”

“He called himself Stoneheart earlier, Mister Bug,” Alya supplied. Marinette flushed at the name. She had just named the new Ladybug after Chat when he had the earrings. Oh, if he could see this now.

“Right. Go distract Stoneheart. If these girls are going to hang around, I might as well put them to use.” Alya squealed and Chat rushed off, baton extended into his staff.

“Just tell us what needs to be done. I don’t want to see Ivan like this anymore.” He tossed her the end of the hose and pointed over to a spigot in the wall.

“Hook it up and turn on the water when I give the signal.” He looked down and started tying a knot in the hose as Marinette ran to the wall to fulfill her task. Alya backed toward the entrance, staying close to Marinette, but kept her phone out to record everything.

“Move, Chat!” Bug yelled as he started charging at Stoneheart. The bug hero jumped onto the closed fist and shoved the hose in it as far as it could go before yelling “Now!”

Marinette turned the faucet and smiled when she saw the hose start to expand with running water. Alya grinned and murmured, “Girl, this is so cool. You’re actually helping superheroes!”

Chat dove in for the crumpled paper as soon as Stoneheart’s hand was forced open. Though he had no Cataclysm, he easily tore his claws into it as soon as Mister Bug nodded.

A dark black butterfly fluttered out of the paper as Ivan crumpled to the ground, disoriented but conscious.

“Wait, don’t let it get away, we need to capture it!” Mister Bug shouted as Chat turned to give his partner a thumbs-up. The butterfly flew away before either of them could do anything.

Marinette guessed that Hawkmoth still had his big _I’m evil, blah-blah-blah, Miraculous_ speech planned.

While the two argued and Alya tried to get information from them, Marinette walked over to Ivan and offered him a hand. She was rarely available to interact personably with akuma victims immediately after Hawkmoth’s hold was broken.

“How are you feeling?” The gentle giant shrugged and Marinette nodded toward Kim’s note. She didn’t need to open it to know what it was. Ivan and Mylene were the happiest couple she had ever seen, and that was saying a lot when she was close friends with Juleka and Rose. “You don’t have to be worried about Mylene. You’re a nice guy, Ivan. It’s the start of school. You’ll have plenty of time to figure out how you want to ask her out.”

“Thanks, Marinette.” Ivan glanced over her shoulder and she turned to look. Chat and Bug seemed ready to bolt as soon as Alya was distracted. “I think I’m going to leave before she interrogates me. I just want to go home and nap.”

“Go ahead. I’ll keep her busy, you just be ready for tomorrow.” Ivan nodded and left through the whole his akumatized self had left.

Alya was standing right behind Marinette when she turned back around, a smile on her face and camera already recording. “So, Marinette, how was it helping Mister Bug and Chat Noir?”

“He kept the name?” she asked instead of answering. The truthful answer was that it wasn’t nearly as thrilling as being Ladybug.

“After we both called him that, I don’t think he could have gotten away with anything else.” Alya chuckled. “What are you planning to do now that you’ve helped out Paris’ new heroes?”

“I’m planning to head home and pick up so lunch. You’re free to come as long as you quit with the interview until I’ve had more time to process everything.”

“Is your home where you got those macarons from?”

“Of course.”

Alya turned the camera around to face her. “Sorry, my lovely viewers, delicious food calls. But I’ll be back later with some more info on our new protectors or my name isn’t Alya Césaire.”

Marinette chuckled and then, with only a bit of apprehension for tomorrow, guided Alya to the bakery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People commented and kudos-ed and I nearly cried. Thanks so much for reading it and putting up with the BS I put in the chapters. I've only watched the first season because I suck, so please accept the fact that all the info I use is either made up or straight from the wiki.


	3. Origins pt. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> College has started for me, big surprise. The bigger surprise to absolutely no one who knows me is that I've been gaming and writing this instead of doing actual school work.

Mister Bug, as he guessed he was now called, entered through the same window he had left through. Barely 30 minutes had passed, but everything already felt different. The room was too small for Mister Bug, but felt just big enough for Félix as the transformation dropped.

Tikki flew around him, a wide grin on her face. “You did so well, Félix! That akuma isn’t going to be able to stand up to you next time we encounter it.”

“I didn’t do a good job,” he grunted in response. “I failed. I was supposed to capture the akuma but I let it get away instead. I had a chance to end it here, but I’ve left Paris in danger instead.” He walked over to his bed and sat between the boxes of books he hadn’t touched since his mother called him in to watch the news about Stoneheart.

“There will always be another akuma, Félix. Don’t stress over it too much.” Tikki settled on his knee and patted his leg with one of her little arms. “Whoever sent out that akuma probably wouldn’t have stopped even if you had managed to capture and purify the akuma.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. “Félix, honey, are you awake yet? I heard you moving about,” Bridgette asked through the door. Tikki zipped off into one of the boxes as Félix made his way to the door and unlocked.

“Sorry, Mother. I’m not used to how sensitive the locks on these doors are. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, either.” He stood in a way that blocked her vision from his bed, which still had boxes piled on. That would easily disprove his excuse of _I was asleep, as you thought_. It felt awful lying to Bridgette, not nearly as bad as watching the akuma flutter away before he could catch up to it. “Did you want to talk about something?”

“Yes, I did. I know that we haven’t quite settled here yet, so it won’t be a big issue for anything, but I wanted to know if you wanted to leave Paris.” She looked to the side, almost as if she was ashamed. “I wasn’t expecting some sort of rock monster to charge out of the school we were looking at. I don’t want to put you in danger if you don’t feel safe. I’ve even talked to Andre and he said that he understands if we wish to leave his hotel so soon.”

Leaving Paris. It was something that made sense, considering all the cons that had piled up today alone. That would mean leaving behind unfinished business, though. The akuma was still out there, as well as whoever had sent out the possessing butterfly. Then there was his partner, who had introduced himself as Chat Noir, and all the impulsiveness he brought to the battlefield. As annoyed as he had been with Chat’s misuse of power, it had been _fun_ working alongside the cat-dressed teen. Then there were also those two girls who hadn’t run away despite the obvious danger. Alya, if he remembered her name correctly, didn’t look like she was about to stop throwing herself in the middle of battles. Then there was Pigtails, who was as helpful as she was a mystery. She knew the location of the akuma and had proved capable of fighting it, though she had acted strangely around his partner. It was something he needed to look into.

Bridgette grew more and more restless as he thought through everything that had happened already. “Look, I know that you may be conflicted. We got so many recommendations about this school, after all.” She sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. “I just want you to feel safe. This is all your choice.”

His mind screamed _Yes. Take me to safety. Take me away._ The earrings burned in his ears at the thought and he knew what he had to say.

“Somebody stopped the monster, correct? I saw the news on my phone.” It was an easy lie that comforted Bridgette more than it did Félix. “I’m not going to run away just because of a little uncertainty like this. Especially if there are already people ready to defend Paris and its people.”

Bridgette pulled Félix into a hug before he could say anything more. “I’m so proud of you. You’re being so strong,” she whispered into his hair. He didn’t hesitate to hug her back. She let go after a bit, her eyes a bit wet. “You should finish unpacking. We’re supposed to send you to school tomorrow if we want to avoid the special transfer student treatment.”

“I’ll get right on it, Mother. Call me when you start making dinner so I may help you.” Bridgette nodded and shut the door as she left.

“I was worried there for a moment.” He jumped at the high-pitched voice of the red kwami. “You didn’t seem too eager to stay here. I was sure that you would leave, too.”

“If I didn’t help fight the akuma, I would have left,” Félix said as honestly as he could. “I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near the monster if I didn’t have the suit.”

“So why did you chose to keep the Miraculous?” His hands drifted up to touch the earrings and their mention. “I’ve had chosen that have given me up before.”

“Like the girl before me?” Tikki had mentioned her once before Félix had flung himself out the window.

Tikki nodded, though she seemed less sure about this. “I didn’t get to explain everything to her. It was like she wanted you to have the Miraculous before she even got the earrings.”

“Then who am I to deny her?” He moved one of the boxes from his bed to the floor and sat down on the mattress. It was suspicious, for sure, but there was nothing he could do about it. “If the akuma are going to keep coming, I’m going to keep fighting them. Running while I have the earrings won’t do any good, and I have somebody here I need to protect.”

“I’m glad that you’re so determined.” Tikki smiled at him and sat on the box. “Before we do anything, though, I need to recharge.”

Félix hoped that this wouldn’t be too long an explanation.

* * *

Alya left the bakery after filling up on cookies, pastries, and information. Marinette couldn’t remember a time where she felt so exhausted after explaining something to her friend. _Did you think he would listen to you? How did you know what he needed help with? Do you like Chat Noir or Mister Bug better? Which would you rather have as a partner? Do you think you could replace either of them?_ The questions had just been coming on and on as her parents fretted behind the counter, only kept sane by the fact that she had come back home safe without a single injury.

They would chew her out later for sure, but for now, she would enjoy the peace before she would have to assure them, falsely, that she wouldn’t put herself in harm’s way again.

Right now, though, she sat at one of the tables by a window and worked on some required paperwork for class while snacking on a cookie of her own. They weren’t as sweet without Tikki around. There was nothing she could do now with the Miraculous in the hands of Mister Bug.

Mister Bug. Her pen came to a halt on the paper as the new hero crossed her mind. He seemed stiffer than Chat, but that could have been nerves. His Lucky Charm had been different--the situation, somehow, had also been different, though. He had still failed to purify the akuma, but he still remembered. That was more than she had when she first got the Miraculous, so she couldn’t complain about him.

 _I’ll need to talk with Fu,_ she thought with a frown as she got back to work. _He’s still the guardian. I can’t risk him trying to take the Miraculous from that kid._

The bell rang behind Marinette looked up from the papers, hoping that it wasn’t another regular of the bakery who had recognized her on the television. She wasn’t expecting to see a pale blond with well-styled hair whose bedroom she had broken into an hour before.

 _Cookies for Tikki_ , her mind supplied. She tried not to stare at him as he walked up to the counter, but the small wiggle in his pocket was impossible to ignore.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” the boy started nervously. He lacked the confidence of his hero persona. Marinette could understand that. “I was hoping to purchase a box of chocolate chip cookies,” he hesitated before pointing at one of the small cakes on display, “as well as one of those.”

“Of course, let me get those ready for you.” Sabine smiled at him and immediately got to work. Her eyes meet with Marinette’s for a brief moment and the younger of the two had to hold back a groan. “Are you new here? You look about my daughter’s age, but I’ve never seen you before.”

“My mother and I just arrived. I’ll be attending a local collège tomorrow,” the boy explained.

Sabine pointed at Marinette and she looked down just in time to miss the boy look at her. “My daughter--Marinette--attends Collège Françoise Dupont. If you’re going there, even if you aren’t in her class, she’s a good place to start for friends.”

“Ah,” the boy sounded like he didn’t know how to reply to that. “Thank you?” The conversation died and Sabine finished packaging the cookies and cake. The boy paid for them and Marinette tried to stay focused on her paper.

The boy stopped before he passed Marinette. She took her time filling out the paper. Her breath slowed, though, and she hoped that he would continue on. She couldn’t deal with talking to him in both his forms in one day.

He sighed and continued on out the door though, taking the cookies and Tikki along with him.

* * *

Collège Françoise Dupont was, in fact, where Félix would be attending. The school was unimpressive overall, but it felt… open. Welcoming. There were students hanging out in front of the school and even more loitering around the halls, catching up with friends and making jokes that would have required going here for at least a year before understanding any of them. It was different than any other school that Félix had attended before.

Félix was acutely aware that this sort of comradery was not his sort of thing. Especially with how many of the groups he passed were gossiping about “Ivan, that kid who turned into the rock monster.”

He could understand their worry, but spreading baseless rumors would do nothing but anger the boy Mister Bug had fought yesterday. The boy hadn’t been born like that, it was an akuma. He and Chat Noir were not _intergalactic heroes_ or whatever he heard, they were just normal people carrying around magical jewelry that could be possessed by miniature gods, one of which he now had in one of the compartments of his school bag.

Okay. That did sound a little insane.

He continued walking past the groups until he arrived at his classroom. He wasted no time in looking around for Mlle Bustier--it was obvious that she was not yet in the room by the way the students were acting.

Five of the students were standing around the second row of desks. Reporter girl from yesterday had her finger pointed at a blond boy, while Chloe Bourgeois stood smugly. Her little friend, who he had heard Chloe refer to as Sabrina once in the hotel, stood proudly beside her. Backing the reporter was Marinette, who looked like she was already tired with whatever argument was going on.

“Look, just because you’re friends with Chloe doesn’t mean you can do this!” The reporter gestured at something on the seat that Félix couldn’t see.

“Alya, it’s fine, I think he’s telling the truth,” Marinette pleaded her friend. “We saw it before anything major happened and we can get it off easily.” She glanced up and made eye contact with Félix for a brief moment. She almost looked surprised that he was here, though that could just be because he was showing up in class a day later than everyone else.

“Yeah, _Alya_ ,” Chloe taunted, “it isn’t like some superhero fanatic would understand. We needed somewhere to dispose of the gum since it isn’t allowed in class, and when I saw Marinette’s trashy outfit I assumed it was fine. You should quit assuming that Adrikins would waste his time with something so trivial.”

“We all understand that you’re a bad person, Chloe,” the blonde in question only looked a small bit offended at this, “but I figured that Mister Never-been-to-school-before would be focused on making a better impression.”

“Seriously, Alya, it’s fine.” Marinette grabbed a napkin from her purse, reached down to the bench, and, after a small struggle, pulled up a slightly stretched wad of gum. She then launched it into a trashcan at the front of the room. “See? No harm done. Chloe can continue on with her day with her trash in an actual bin, and sunshine boy can continue trying to make friends.”

Sunshine boy? Félix took a closer look at “Adrikins”, almost mirroring Alya as she leaned forward. He did seem overly pleasant like he was overjoyed to even be in the presence of other people. His smile at his new title nearly lit up the room, in fact. It was saccharine and made Félix want to get away from the boy as fast as possible.

The conversation ended as somebody walked in behind Félix. He turned as a hand, unwarranted, landed on his shoulder. “Everyone find your seats,” Mlle Bustier cheerfully instructed, “Class starts in a few minutes and we’ve still got a lot to discuss.” The group in the middle carefully took their seats. Sunshine boy sat beside some guy with headphones, with Marinette and Alya behind them. Chloe and her little follower took the seats across from the two boys. Bustier patted Félix’s shoulder. “You can sit beside Ivan.” She pointed to the boy from yesterday.

Félix took his seat behind Marinette. Ivan seemed hesitant to say any words, which was just fine with Félix. He wasn’t here for conversation, especially after he had seen how the people in the class acted.

The school day went normally for the first period. Everyone was given a break after a long session of Mlle repeating words from yesterday and outlining what lessons they would be going over throughout their courses with her. Several people stood up and left, including Ivan and Alya. The girl glanced at Marinette, who waved her off.

“You go on without me, I’ll catch up in a bit.” Marinette turned to Félix as her friend left the room. “I’m sorry we weren’t able to make a good impression earlier today. I’m Marinette.” She stuck out a hand to him in greeting. Her other hand was in her lap, cradling a box that she must have pulled from her bag.

“Félix.” He went ahead and shook her hand. “It was a small inconvenience. I’ll try to get here earlier to avoid such… arguments.”

“They aren’t usually like that. Adrien--the other new kid--has a history with Chloe. She’ll mellow out in a bit, we’ve just got to give it time.” So that other blond was also new. That was good to know.

Marinette lifted the box and opened the lid. “I was going to hand these out later today during lunch or something, but maybe this can smooth out that bad introduction earlier?” The box was full of chocolate chip cookies, not unlike the ones he had bought yesterday. “My parents own a bakery,” she explained carefully. “The best one in Paris, if you ask me. I figured it would be a good way to start off the new year with everyone, even if we don’t all agree.”

Félix hesitantly reached into the box. Marinette smiled at him, and he could see Tikki looking out from his bag in the corner of his eye. “I appreciate it,” he thanked as he grabbed one of them from the box. Somehow, they were still warm.

“Of course. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” she closed the box and carefully put it into her bag. “I’ve got to go check on Alya, maybe find Ivan.”

“Why do you need to find him?” It was a prying question, but she hadn’t seemed very close to the large boy earlier. Ivan hadn’t been acting suspicious, though Félix had noticed the occasional glances to some girl--Mylène on the roll.

“He had an incident yesterday,” she looked nervous talking about the attack from Stoneheart. “I tried giving him some advice, but things can always go wrong. If he was target yesterday, and if things haven’t been resolved yet, I don’t want him to get hurt again.”

It made sense. Félix shrugged off his curiosity--the information was valuable to Mister Bug, not Félix. Something about Marinette’s involvement yesterday made him think that getting too interested in the akuma as both his personas would be noticed.

He dropped the cookie into his bag as soon as Marinette left the room. Tikki let out a small, “Thank you!”

* * *

_Félix._ It was nice to put a name to the face of her replacement, Marinette thought as she hurried down the halls of Collège Françoise Dupont. He was a bit more serious, and definitely seemed out of his element, but he still wore the earrings. He still took a cookie. He was a lot more accepting of the Miraculous than she had been, and that was good. That meant that she had done good in this timeline without Fu’s help.

There was still the issue of the akuma, though. She had tried to give Ivan different advice, but she still needed Hawkmoth to make his declaration. Her advice of _Mylène likes softer things_ could have changed his approach, but it was unlikely with how determined he looked. He wasn’t hyping himself up to confess, he was hyping himself up to sing.

Then there were all the people who would become replica Stonehearts. This was the only time it would happen, from what she could remember. They would start attacking all over the street as soon as Ivan turned. While she was sure that Mister Bug would stop it, she couldn’t be sure that it would be more focused on one area if Chloe wasn’t there to taunt Stoneheart.

She was interrupted by Mylène running past her towards one of the empty classrooms. Ivan must have tried to confess already. That didn’t leave a lot of time before Stoneheart would arrive to search for her.

Marinette approached the classroom and glanced inside. Mylène had curled in on herself on one of the benches, humming one of her songs to calm herself down. “Mylène?” The girl stopped rocking but didn’t look up. “It’s me, Marinette. Is that fine if I come in?”

A beat of silence, then a small nod.

“Okay. I’m going to come in and sit beside you.” She did as she said after making sure that Mylène wouldn’t say anything to stop her.

The two sat in silence as Mylène slowly calmed down. The clock was ticking, she knew, but she couldn’t rush this. “Do you want to talk about it?” Marinette asked once Mylène had unballed herself.

“Ivan… he came up and played this loud music and just sort of…” Mylène’s explanation tapered off.

“Started screaming?” Mylène nodded and Marinette carefully put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “I’m sorry it happened like that, Mylène. Ivan _really_ likes you,” Marinette hoped that he would forgive her for confessing for him, “it’s just that he has trouble expressing himself. Aside from him being loud, did anything really scare you?”

“Of course not,” Mylène whispered. She continued, “I don’t think he’s scary, but it was so shocking. How could he just scare me like that?”

“He probably didn’t know. If you’re feeling better, we can go and explain everything to him.”

Mylène took a deep breath and nodded. “I’d like that.”

The soft moment was ruined by quick, heavy footfalls in the hallway and the door being blown off the hinges as Stoneheart found them. “ _Mylène!_ ” he screeched. The girl cowered into Marinette’s side.

“Ivan, stop it!” Marinette knew that screaming would make it worse for Mylène, who hugged her tighter at the noise, but she couldn’t do anything else. Running wouldn’t help. “She’s scared of loud noises. Accepting _his_ help won’t make Mylène want to be with you.”

The beast hesitated, but Marinette recognized the outline of a purple butterfly around his face as Hawkmoth start communications. It was harder to see without the Miraculous to help her see the Butterfly’s power, or maybe it was just because Hawkmoth wasn’t as connected to his akumas early on. She still knew that she had lost the mental battle when she saw it, though.

“You were wrong once,” Stoneheart hissed, “I won’t listen to you again.”

Stoneheart lunged forward, both his fists outstretched. One wrapped around Mylène and the other around Marinette. It _hurt_. She felt her ribs being pushed closer together, her arms rubbing against the hard stone to find a good position that wouldn’t break them. She caught a glance at Mylène’s face as Stoneheart carried both of them out of the room. Mylène didn’t look uncomfortable, so he probably was being gentle with her.

“Where are you taking us?” Mylène asked once they were out of the building, students running from all the Stonehearts in the area. Marinette hadn’t seen Félix or Adrien, so both of them had hopefully transformed already.

She got her answer once they were marching through the streets of Paris. The familiar clank of a metal pole hitting stone, and soon Chat Noir was in front of them.

Marinette couldn’t see how she had missed that he and Adrien were the same person. After sitting behind Adrien in class, though, it was easier to stomach that he was here. He didn’t look as confident and sure as he would in the future, but she could definitely see that he was into the whole superhero thing.

“How about you let the girls go, Rockhead?” Chat taunted, crouched for another attack. His eyes widened, as did Marinette’s, and Stoneheart grew in size. His strength matched and Marinette yelped as the fist around her grew stronger.

“No!” Stoneheart shouted. “I’m taking them and you can’t stop me!” He followed this by letting out a wail. It was answered by the sound of several heavy sets of footsteps, all coming in their direction.

Copies of Stoneheart appeared from the alleys between buildings, each with the rage that Marinette’s captor wore. They all focused on Chat while the true Stoneheart continued his path to the Eiffel Tower.

No Mister Bug yet. That wasn’t worrying, she had been late to the scene, but this would be more dangerous for him. Chloe, when she had been captured, had been thrown away before the big battle started. There would be no reason for Stoneheart to throw Marinette, especially if one of his current grudges was against her. That would mean another civilian in the way, as much as she hated to think of herself as such.

Stoneheart launched himself onto the Eiffel Tower, settling in the middle of it as a force of police trained their guns on the beast. “Drop the girls, monster!” Officer Raincomprix shouted through a megaphone. “You don’t want civilians getting hurt, and neither do we!”

Stoneheart Chuckled and took a step forward. “You can’t make me.” It was defiant and made Marinette shiver in the tight grip around her. The refusal was followed by more of the officers training their guns on them all, civilians in danger or not. Even Officer Raincomprix lifted his gun, though it was hard to see from this distance.

Before anyone could give the command to fire, a black blur and a red blur arrived on scene. She could see small limbs move around as the argument for no gunfire started, she assumed.

Before any headway could happen in the argument, Stoneheart suddenly started choking. His grip tightened again in both fists if the sudden noise of pain from Mylène was anything to go by. After flailing around, trying to get his throat to open, his head tilted back and let out a cloud of dark butterflies before he fell back onto the platform of the tower.

The head the butterflies created was horrifying this close. The face of Hawkmoth already floated around her nightmares, but this was on the level of all their true face-to-face encounters. As much as fear burned within her, so did rage.

“You cocky bastard!” Marinette shouted as she struggled in Stoneheart’s grip. The face ignored her and actually started speaking as she let loose a long stream of profanities that Mylène backed with her own more subtle jeers.

“People of Paris,” Hawkmoth’s voice projected from the mass of butterflies, “listen carefully. I am Hawkmoth.” Finally, a name that Marinette could say without being suspicious. “Mister Bug, Chat Noir, give me the ladybug earrings and the cat ring now. You've done enough damage to these innocent people!”

Mister Bug yelled something at the image above them, though it was hard to hear over the sound of the akuma’s small wings. The boy finished yelling and soon a shimmering yoyo was cutting through all the butterflies, purifying them and making sure that they couldn’t affect anyone.

He took a stand on the supports of the tower, only casting a brief look to the two trapped girls before facing the cameras and people watching the tower.

“Let me make this clear,” the spotted hero began, “No matter who intends to harm Paris, Chat Noir and I will do whatever we can to keep you all safe.”

Marinette looked at the boy with wonder. He was doing amazing, even though he sounded a bit sterner than she remembered being. Would Chat Noir still be obsessed with romancing the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous, though? It hadn’t turned out too badly for them, though they hadn’t stayed together for more than a few months.

The hand around her relaxing and then tightening again broke Marinette from her thoughts. “Mister Bug!” The hero turned around. “He’s about to get up!” The hero nodded and jumped down to their level as Stoneheart stood.

“You’ll never take Mylène from me!” he shouted. Before anything else could be said, Stoneheart made his decision about Marinette. He quickly threw her from the tower, catching both Marinette and Mister Bug off guard.

Zooming through the air was nearly therapeutic, but the lack of yoyo or protective magical suit was worrying. She was proud of herself for not screaming, though she would admit that she let out a yelp as something warm and covered in leather caught her, carrying her back to the tower.

“You really need to stop getting involved with these dangerous men, _purr_ incess.” The nickname made Marinette shudder--that word had been forbidden in the team after the Chat incident. Hearing it again felt nice, though.

“Trust me, I wasn’t trying to get caught.” Marinette looked around and noticed the Stoneheart copies climbing up the tower. “You should get back to saving Mylène and the city, kitty. I’ll be fine.”

“If you’re _paw_ sitive about that.” Chat Noir shrugged before using his staff to launch himself to Mister Bug and Stoneheart.

* * *

Hawkmoth would get his ass beat, Mister Bug decided. It didn’t matter when or where or who either of them were at the time, it would happen. Everything about this was ridiculous.

“Yo, MB, what’s the plan?” Chat asked as he landed beside his partner. The nickname was new, but Mister Bug couldn’t argue. He had already bound them together by making sure that Paris knew that both of them would be fighting Hawkmoth.

“Let me think,” he crossed his arms and looked up at the climbing creatures. Ivan and Mylène weren’t that close, but the akumatized boy certainly didn’t want to be separated.

Maybe they could use that?

“If he doesn’t want to be separated, let’s bring them closer together,” he vaguely explained before using his yoyo to climb the tower.

He landed at the top and looked down at the beast while Chat Noir worked on keeping the copies away. He hadn’t thought of himself as a matchmaker, but he wouldn’t know if he was good at it if he didn’t try.

“How do you plan to even get close to them?” Chat yelled.

“Just trust me,” Mister Bug responded. He through the yoyo into the air with a shout of “Lucky Charm!” and caught a… parachute?

Well, that wouldn’t work to bring them closer. At least the yoyo had stayed with him.

Wait, the yoyo.

“I’m going to try something, Chat! Get ready to catch something!”

“Will do!”

Mister Bug threw the yoyo and wrapped it around Stoneheart’s head and hand before tugging, tightening the loop. He felt bad at the forced kiss, but it had the desired effect of making Stoneheart drop the girl and the akumatized object.

Without needing instruction, Chat Noir grabbed the ball of paper and tore it apart with his claws. Now was his chance to catch the butterfly and get rid of it. At least, it would have been if he didn’t have two of his classmates falling from the building.

“Chat, grab Ivan! I’ll get Mylène and the akuma!” This was what the parachute was for. If only the superpower hadn’t made it feel so useless before, especially now that it was definitely a life-or-death situation.

The first task, on the way down, was the butterfly. He flung out the yoyo towards it as he leaped off the tower and let the magical device do its work. It caught the akuma and came back to him, almost vibrating with the strength of the butterfly trying to return to its master. Next was Mylène, who he wrapped in his arms before pulling the cord of the parachute. They gracefully drifted down to the ground, with Chat Noir and Ivan landing beside them while Marinette cheered them on, still safe on the tower.

Mister Bug tapped on the yoyo, releasing a pure white butterfly that flew around his head once before disappearing. The instincts that came with the suit made him throw the parachute into the air with only a slightly embarrassing “Miraculous Ladybug!”

The spotted parachute exploded above his head, turning into thousands of magical ladybugs that zipped off to unknown parts of Paris. The ones that stayed in the area wrapped around the damages caused by Stoneheart, as well as the remaining copies of the akuma, repairing the damages and reverting the creatures back into civilians.

“Oh, this is absolutely _paw_ some. This is so cool, MB!” Chat Noir held out a fist, “Pound it?”

Mister Bug rolled his eyes but went ahead with the fist bump. “Pound it.”

Bridgette would be so proud if she could see this.

“That was so cool!” The two heroes turned around to see Marinette still on the tower, looking down on them with a brilliant smile on her face. While Adrien’s smile may have lit up the room earlier today, hers was easily brighter than the sun that shimmered behind her. Despite what had happened, she was still impressed with them. That was good to know.

“I’ll go get her, you stay here and solve that mess,” Chat Noir gestured to Ivan and Mylène, who were awkwardly standing next to each other. The cat jumped away before Bug could ask to change jobs.

Great, now would be the true test of his matchmaking abilities. This was not what he had signed up for when he decided to stay in Paris.

* * *

“I can’t believe everything was done by the time I got there! I was hoping for some good footage from the blog, but now all I’ll have are witness reports,” Alya complained to Marinette as they walked into the school the next day.

“Blog?” Was it still the _Ladyblog_ , even if Ladybug had become Mister Bug?

“Yep! I figured that somebody needs to track the progress of Paris’ new superheroes, and who better than Miss Alya Césaire, ace reporter?” She did a little pose with her newly assigned title before pulling out her phone and showing her the site. “I know it is called _Ladyblog_ , but that sort of makes it a good companion to the heroes. I’m going to work on keeping it from being some sort of weird shipping site, so I haven’t put in a comment feature yet, but I’ve already got a lot of people following!”

Marinette laughed. The name was the same, but the design was different. It was a lot less feminine, and it had a better balance of black and red with a lower amount of pink decorating the blog. “If you need reports on everything, I _did_ have a front seat to everything.”

“Are you sure? I didn’t think you’d want to talk about being thrown by a rock monster from the Eiffel Tower.” Despite her words being hesitant, Alya looked physically ready to go into an interview.

“Why not? We can go somewhere after school and take care of it if that’s fine with you.” Alya nodded easily, and the conversation morphed into schoolwork that they had already been assigned.

A few people were already in the classroom when they arrived. Marinette waved at Nino, who was watching the door for Adrien, and then at Mylène and Ivan, who were chatting at the boy’s seat. Félix was already there and responded with an acknowledging nod when Marinette smiled at him.

Marinette dropped her bag down on the floor and then set her umbrella down on the table. As much as she had loved Adrien letting her borrow his umbrella, now wasn’t the time for another crush on the blond.

It started raining towards the end of the day, but everyone was able to go on with their lives. Ivan and Mylène shared an umbrella as they walked out, and Alya departed in the direction of her own home with a promise to text Marinette later. Even Adrien was able to get in his car with a smile and a wave.

The only person who hadn’t left when Marinette got outside was Félix, who watched the rain pour with a frown on his face.

“Did you not know that it would rain?” Her question made the boy jump, but she thought it was fair. He had seemed put together these past two days, she didn’t think he would be the type to not bring an umbrella.

“We haven’t been in Paris that long, the information we looked at was incorrect,” Félix admitted. Marinette smiled and held out her own umbrella to him, though he only looked at it with apprehension.

“If you promise to give it back later, I’ll let you borrow it now. My house isn’t that far away, so I won’t need it if I hurry,” That was a lie, but she knew that he still had a longer trip than she did.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.” She handed the umbrella over to him and then rolled up her pants legs so they wouldn’t get soaked. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Uh… yeah.” He released the umbrella, and the pop of it extending was her signal to charge into the rain.


	4. Monitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait we broke 1000 hits? And 100 kudos? You guys are insane and I couldn't thank you enough.
> 
> Sorry this took so long to get out. I'm trying to aim for a chapter a month but then I had some essays to get done. This chapter is the longest one so far and we make some plot progress, so enjoy what you can. Also, first original akuma. Not the best one, but I'm sticking with it. Most of these chapters are going to be canon episode rewrites (like the next one, which'll be The Bubbler.) I've got one specific akuma that I'm excited to get to a bit later in the story. You'll know when we get there.
> 
> Thank you, my dearest readers, for taking the time to read this, leaving kudos, and leaving comments. I read them, I swear, I'm just uncomfortable responding. Everything is greatly appreciated!!!

There were a few things that Félix learned during the week after the first akuma attack. The first was that Hawkmoth had no respect for Paris’ youth.

Within the next seven days, there were three akuma attacks. One happened during school: a girl who forgot her homework one too many times and proceeded to mildly inconvenience everyone by making them forget important things. Another happened in the early morning: a young man who was late to his job interview and turned everyone’s voices into ringing alarms, which made communicating with the public extremely hard. The final one, and maybe the most inconvenient, was a lady who got kicked out of a party at _three in the morning_ on a school night and had gone about turning everybody she found into _party animals_ , random pets with party hats on. It was awful and Félix was sure that everyone had noticed how exhausted he was during class--which led to Marinette bringing him a cup of coffee from her parents’ bakery during lunch.

The second thing that he noticed was that Alya had a bad habit of being the first and last civilian he would see during akuma attacks.

It didn’t matter the time or the place. It didn’t matter what sort of akuma attack it was. She would always have her phone out and the video uploaded to the _Ladyblog_ within thirty minutes of the end of the fight. She seemed as exhausted as Félix did during the late-night ones, which was a small comfort that was stomped out by the fear Félix felt whenever she showed up on scene.

As for the third, Chat Noir was extremely sheltered.

They had decided that they would both patrol for the first week before choosing what nights they would go out. Chat seemed excited to be roaming around Paris and frequently talked about “cute, little places” he didn’t know existed when they met back up at the Eiffel Tower. He seemed shocked when Mister Bug appeared the second night with a coffee cup in hand. He had rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything when they met back up and Chat had a drink of his own, a smoothie from a shop that Chat hadn’t known about until that night. Whenever Bug told Chat that he was allowed to do something, the feline superhero seemed shocked. It didn’t make Bug feel good about whatever was going on in Chat’s civilian life.

The fourth and final thing was Marinette. Just… Marinette as a whole.

She appeared during akuma attacks as often as Alya did, but was actually helpful. She would move civilians out of the way or shout theories as Mister Bug launched over her. She was as capable as Chat in the partner category and probably could have made a good hero if she had a Miraculous. She’d occasionally wave them over during patrols and give them information about local crime. How she knew, Mister Bug didn’t know (and Félix couldn’t ask, because that would be suspicious), but she easily became their informant about things happening around the city. People who might be having a rough day, criminals who would try to take advantage of an akuma attack, different strategies for battles that seemed obscure, but what could be considered _obscure_ when magical butterflies turned people into monsters. It was risky, it could have made her a target but she waved him off with a laugh every time Bug mentioned the danger.

She designed, too, and Félix would be lying if he said that she wasn’t good at it. She often came in with her new designs, either wearing them herself or giving them to her friends. He had yet to receive anything from her, but he could tell that she was gearing up to ask for his measurements. It was exciting. Alya was the main recipient of the gifts, though Nino was a close second. While neither of those two truly understood her when she began to rave about fashion, there were others in the class who easily gravitated to her no matter what she was talking about. He and Adrien would contribute to modeling conversations (a passion of his mother from her youth, though that was never brought up.) Juleka and Rose would help with her detailing occasionally, offering suggestions to push her designs (Marinette always seemed to be expecting these suggestions--maybe she was just that good?) Even Chloé would contribute by arguing about color coordination. It always got heated toward the end, but Marinette seemed to enjoy it more than Félix would have if he were caught on the receiving end of the blonde’s insults.

The only issue with Marinette was that there was no good time to return the umbrella that she had let him borrow a full week ago. The first attempt was interrupted by the akumatized girl. The second, he had been too tired in the morning and had forgotten it. The third was stopped by another surprise storm that had Marinette insisting that he keep the umbrella until he remembered to bring one of his own.

This would be the fourth attempt. Hopefully, the final attempt. He had the umbrella. He made sure that it would stay sunny all day. No akumas had interrupted his night, and he was prepared to stop any akuma that showed up as fast as possible so school wouldn’t end before he could return it.

He got there early, as per usual, and took his spot behind Marinette’s seat. People slowly filtered into the room. Ivan was the first to acknowledge him with a soft _hello_. The two had grown somewhat close over the week, being bench mates during the majority of their class. As a result, Feli could confidently say that the giant and his newly-proclaimed girlfriend were his friends. He was often the third wheel to Ivan and Mylène, but Marinette always seemed to swoop in and invite him to hang out with her group whenever things got too much.

Adrien and Nino came in sometime later with Chloé trailing behind them in a huff. The blond boy smiled at Félix with a wave. “Hey, Fé. How’s it going?”

“Just fine, Adrien.” Félix looked toward the door--the two boys usually entered with Alya and Marinette. “Where are the girls?”

“Alya’s waiting outside for Mari, dude.” Nino chuckled as he sat down, a fond look on his face. “Alya thinks that there’ll be an akuma today and wants to try and recruit Mari early.”

“Doesn’t she always think that there will be an akuma?” Adrien asked.

“Unfortunately,” Félix sighed and leaned back in his seat. “I was hoping to finally return Marinette’s umbrella.”

Nino smiled at Félix. “Dude, you still have that thing? You’ve had, like, a week to give it back to her.” The DJ leaned toward Félix and crossed his arms along the back of the bench. “Sure you aren’t stalling so you have more time to talk to her?”

Félix blushed. “Of course not! I have enough social skills to not need the assistance of an umbrella to talk to Marinette.” Ivan let out a short laugh at this and Mylène across the row did nothing to hide her wide smile.

“Oh, so no denial of your crush then?” Adrien teased. The flush on Félix’s face got worse, but his comeback was stopped when Alya walked in, staring down at her phone with a frown.

“Alya!” If the word came out rushed, no one bothered to mention it. “I was led to believe that you would be entering with Marinette.” The blogger raised a brow, to which Félix gestured to the pink umbrella on his desk.

“Girl just texted me, she’s got something going on today and won’t be able to come in until way later,” Alya explained as she sat down. Her bag gave a loud _thump_ as she dropped it on Marinette’s seat, either to keep Chloé from messing with it or let Félix know that today would not be the day that he would be rid of the umbrella.

* * *

It had only taken a little bit of convincing for Marinette’s parents to set up the appointment with the massage shop a block away. With the sudden increase of akumas feasting on negative emotions, Tom and Sabine eagerly agreed to let Marinette go in one morning and take a beginner’s lesson on meditation for emotional control.

Marinette hadn’t told them that she had good control over her emotions, that this was a meeting to explain herself to the guardian for this timeline. A week had gone by--four total akuma attacks--and the Bug he saw on-field wasn’t the one he had picked. Even if he had trained her as the next guardian, he wouldn’t know that now.

She needed to talk to Master Fu. Explain her choice and make sure that he wouldn’t try to take the Miraculous away.

Marinette walked down the street toward Master Fu’s home, sending a text to Alya as she went. There was a chance for an akuma today--there was _always_ a chance because she had been doing this for ten years and she couldn’t remember the time and place of every akuma, even if she did try to get to know each victim a little--but she didn’t need to be there to protect Alya, she hoped. Mister Bug had been doing good so far. Still, both heroes needed to improve their skills. She hadn’t been helping them for fun, though it was nice to help stop akumas. They needed to get better--hopefully, this talk with Master Fu would give her more options.

She broke out of her thoughts as her hand automatically knocked on the door of the shop. She heard steps on the other side, uneven and unhurried, before the door opened.

“Ah, hello again,” Master Fu greeted her with a smile. “You must be my appointment for today.”

“That’s right!” Marinette tried to force a smile of her own as he ushered her in. The last she had seen it, it had been emptied, put for sale as he left all his memories behind. It was nice to see how full the place was. She could feel the magic soaking into her skin as it flowed off various items around the room. Even more crept out from under a paper door leading to the room with the Miracle Box.

“I understand that you are here for some meditation techniques,” Master Fu began as he sat her down on a cushion. “What all do you already know?”

Marinette took a deep breath. “That actually isn’t what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to explain myself and apologize for giving away the Ladybug Miraculous.”

If he was caught off guard, he didn’t show it. “The Ladybug Miraculous?” He took a seat across from her. “I’m afraid that I don’t know what you mean.”

“Then let me explain, Master.” It came out ruder than she intended, but she continued, “You gave me the Ladybug Miraculous and the first thing I did was give it away. I went behind your back even though you are the guardian. I believed it was the better choice, and I made sure to check if his aura was compatible with Tikki, but I still acted without discussing my choice with you first.”

Now he was on edge. His face didn’t change, but she could see the threat in his eyes and the tenseness in his muscles. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“No one does, and there is a reason for that.” Marinette glanced at the room with the most magic, watching the multi-colored smoke of magic leak from the room. It hurt her eyes, unused to seeing the colors in this body, but it was the territory that came with guardianship.“I think that Sass and Fluff might know what’s going on since they were the ones who sent me back, but you probably won’t let me see Sass and I know for a fact that Fluff isn’t here--we have a few months until the Rabbit Miraculous is back in circulation, and even then it’ll take a good year or two before we know about it.”

“Calm down, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Master Fu cast her a scolding look that would have made her nervous if she weren’t living through this timeline again. “Explain yourself. After that, I will decide if you can see the other Miraculous.” His voice was even, but he did move his hands to cover the Turtle Miraculous.

“I’m from the future--my mind, not my body. We were fighting against the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses, but we weren’t strong enough.” Marinette looked down at her hands. They were weak and unscarred, only slightly rough from handling fabrics. “It took us ten years to get to that point. We lost a lot, and we were about to lose some more. I was injured, so we tried something new. We pushed the Snake and Rabbit as far as they could go and sent me back to…” Marinette stopped as her voice choked up.

“They sent you back ten years?” Master Fu’s shocked question gave Marinette enough time to recover. “I didn’t think they would be needed. You are extremely strong if you were able to survive that.”

“Well, I try to live,” Marinette joked. She was glad for the change in subject, but she still needed to explain. “Chat Noir and I weren’t strong enough to stop Hawkmoth on our own. You trained me to become a guardian and I built more of the team after you passed on the title.”

“I trained you?”

“We needed a new guardian. Hawkmoth was getting too close to finding the Box, and you were getting caught up on years. You passed on what you could before you left, but a lot of what I know was taught to me by the kwami.” Marinette shifted on her cushion. “I don’t know how to prove it to you, a lot of what they taught me was protection and healing spells.”

He stared at her before sighing. “There is no way to show me your skill as a guardian, but I can feel your honesty. Wayzz, you can come out now.”

The kwami inched out from the pocket on Master Fu’s shirt and flew around the two of them before stopping in front of Marinette’s face.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Marinette.”

“And it’s a pleasure to see you again, Wayzz.” Marinette stuck a finger out to the kwami and they gently shook hands to the best of their ability. “I’m sorry if this all seems a bit sudden. I didn’t want anything to happen to Mister Bug.”

“You said that you checked his aura,” Wayzz began as he sat on the table between the two guardians, “what did you see within it?”

“He has an adaptable soul, able to work with any of the Miraculous.” It was something she hadn’t felt with someone untransformed, but she could remember feeling it whenever someone used a Miraculous that they weren’t bonded too. Able to work, but not completely in control. “I couldn’t remember feeling it whenever I searched for new holders in the future. I wasn’t sure when he would leave, so I had to act fast.”

“Why did you not give it to him after the fight?”

Master Fu picked up a cup of tea off the table between them while Marinette answered, “Hawkmoth, in the original timeline, knew who we were. Not immediately, but our identities were compromised sooner than we had hoped. If I showed up purified the akuma then gave the Miraculous to someone else, it would raise suspicions. I can’t risk him knowing that someone is working behind the scenes to stop him.”

“This is a lot to process, Marinette.” The old man brushed his beard a bit. “Can you return on Saturday? Wayzz and I will have something thought of by then.”

“That is perfectly fine, Master Fu.” Marinette stood up and grabbed her school bag. “I understand that this is a lot and that I haven’t told you everything, but I don’t want to mess up with the timeline so bad that something drastically changes. As long as you keep the Ladybug Miraculous with the boy I’ve picked, I am willing to work with whatever decision you make.”

Master Fu led Marinette to the door, their allotted time nearly finished, but grabbed her shoulder before he opened the door.

“Can you tell me who Mister Bug is? It could be vital information.”

Marinette smiled and shook her head. “I think that I deserve to keep that secret since he was appointed under my guardianship instead of yours, Master Fu.” She opened the door herself and stepped through. “Tikki still thinks that you’re the guardian, so no need to worry about me replacing you out of nowhere.”

She stepped past the threshold of his territory. There was negativity in the air, a heaviness that fluttered Collège Françoise Dupont. Another akuma, heading right where she was going. At least she could have the excuse of _I was just trying to go to school, I wasn’t planning to get caught by an akuma_ when she helped Paris’ two heroes.

* * *

Félix was bored. He wouldn’t say that it was an issue with Ms. Mendeleiev’s teaching (she would skewer him if he did), but he wouldn’t argue if someone tried to blame his lack of classmates. Specifically, the one who sat in front of him.

 _What is she doing right now?_ The thought was immediately followed by, _She gets in enough trouble already for being late to school, why schedule something during class?_

Ms. Mendeleiev turned around and something slid onto Félix’s notes. Ivan’s blocky lettering read _Mylène_ on the face of the folded message. Félix rolled his eyes and, when it seemed that their teacher was in the middle of writing, stretched out to put it on the girl’s desk.

This was his use in the class. Most of the others had already knit themselves together from years of being in the same system, and the other two newcomers were easily accepted into Marinette’s fold. As much as the others liked to tease him, he wasn’t only after the pigtailed girl--no, he wasn’t after her at all. It was nice to hang out with her steadily growing group, but having some friends of his own was pleasant. If passing notes between the two lovers was what it took to keep his friends, he’d happily do it as long as it didn’t interfere with his studies.

The look on his mother’s face when he told her that he’d be going out with some friends made it all worth it as well.

Mylène giggled, wrote something down on the note, and then poked the folded paper into Félix’s side. He grabbed it and handed it to his bench mate right as Ms. Mendeleieve turned around. “You’ll need to know this for the lab tomorrow, as well as the test on Friday,” she warned. “Césaire, make sure that Dupain-Cheng gets all of this information.”

“Sure thing, Ms. Mendeleiev.”

The teacher opened her mouth to continue her lesson when a shout and loud footsteps were heard from outside. “I swear, if that isn’t Dupain-Cheng herself,” the teacher mumbled as she made her way to the door. A student rushed past as soon as it opened. “Excuse you, young sir! There is no running in these hallways!”

She rushed out to chase the student.

“Sabrina, please tell me you understand what that woman was talking about,” Chloé was the first to break the silence left by the teacher. “All this science is going to melt my brain one day, I swear.”

“I’ve got it all down, Chloé!” The redhead smiled brightly at her friend. “I even have ideas drafted for our projects, just say the word and I’ll get started on yours!”

Alya rolled her eyes before turning around to look at Félix. “So, I heard that there was a conversation going on about you before I got in this morning.”

“Oh lord, no.” Was he too young to regret every decision he had made in life? Maybe. Was that going to stop him now? Not at all.

“Yeah, dudette,” Nino chimed in with a teasing grin on his face. “Dude’s been crushing on Mari since last week.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet!” Alya scooted over into Marinette’s seat and put her hands on Félix’s desk. “Lucky for you, I’m her best friend! Just let me know and I’ll hook you two up, okay?”

“I assure you, that isn’t necessary. If I wanted to court Marinette I would already be taking the steps to do so.”

Alya scoffed and Nino covered for her, “Just let her do this for you, dude. She wants to be just like Mister Bug and set up a couple.”

“Mister Bug?” This wasn’t the first time he had heard of the reporter’s obsession with Paris’ new heroes. This was the first he heard about her wanting to be like his other persona, though. “How would doing _that_ make you like him?”

“There is only so much a civilian can do. And really, finishing your first battle with an act of creating love? That’s a power move. If I can’t fight crime like he can, I might as well work to make people happier so they don’t get akumatized. And you,” she poked Félix’s cheek and he retreated out of her range, “could use a lot more happiness in your life.”

“Come on, guys, give him a break.” Adrien finally looked up from where he was adding extra bits to his notes. “Marinette’s just a really nice girl. Anyone could have a crush on her, I don’t think you should tease Félix just because of his.”

“It isn’t a crush!” This was going nowhere! “I don’t need any more happiness and I don’t need any help with Marinette.”

“So you _do_ like her, you just think you don’t need our help,” Alya accused.

“Of course no--”

A scream from the hallway, the blast of energy that always signaled an akuma.

Of course there would be an akuma.

Adrien was the first to react to the commotion. “Everyone stay here, I’m going to see what’s going on!” He rushed out without another word. Chloé stayed seated, but let out a shrill cry of _Be safe, Adrikins!_

He needed to transform. Tikki was in his pocket, it was just a matter of getting out of the classroom, staying away from Alya, and saving Adrien before the sunshine boy could get injured by whatever akuma had entered the school.

“I’ll go cover him, you all contact the authorities,” Félix demanded as he stood up and chased after the blond. Chloé and Sabrina already had their phones out, both contacting their fathers. Alya looked ready to follow after them, only held back by Nino blocking her way down the stairs. Before Félix could leave the room, he saw Nino give him an appreciative nod. He gave a tense smile, a nod of his own, and then slammed the door behind him.

The akuma was on the first floor of the school. Bronze skin and bright red glasses that had been extended into a pair of binoculars held onto his face by reinforced arms. He could see, even at this distance, the mirrors inside rotating like a lens as the akuma looked up at Félix.

“You shouldn’t be out of your class, blondie,” the akuma shouted. He took a few steps closer to Félix and was easily threatening even though there was a whole floor of elevation between them. The akuma slowly took something off his belt, a notepad with a swirling galaxy pattern, which clashed so much with the red of his outfit that Félix would have willingly cried in Marinette’s sted. Marinette always had some sort of comment about an akuma’s costumes. This one was the worst so far.

Maybe Hawkmoth had a vendetta against Marinette? Félix wouldn’t admit to anyone--no, maybe Chat Noir would hear about this--that the idea made him want to take the villain out faster.

The akuma drew Félix’s attention back as he started writing something in the book, “Really, if you wanted to sneak out of class, you shouldn’t have been so obvious. Looks like the Hall Monitor will have to make sure you receive…” he finished writing and tore the page from the book, “correct disciplinary action.”

Hall Monitor threw the paper at Félix. It sliced through the guardrail that kept students from falling from the second floor to the first. It was mainly Tikki’s urging from his pocket to “hurry up and transform” that had Félix running away from the akuma. He sprinted down the halls, taking as many turns as he could before ducking into an open supply closet and shutting the door just enough that he couldn’t be seen, but not risking to close it for fear that it would make noise.

Tikki flew out of his pocket. “That was a close one, Félix! You shouldn’t freeze up like that.”

“I know, I know, I just wasn’t expecting the akuma to be right there. It caught me off guard.” Félix reached up and felt his earrings. “Chat should be coming soon--he’s usually pretty good about the ones that happen during school. Adrien won’t be any trouble,” the blond, for as often as he ran out to check the akuma and make sure people were safe, was never found during akuma attacks, “and Marinette’s out for now. We just have Alya and the akuma to deal with.”

“All they need now is Mister Bug!” Tikki cheerfully added. Félix nodded and, with a flash of light, the hero ran out the door.

There were several cards lodged in the walls that he ran past. Each one listed some sort of description and a “reason for punishment”, along with a photo of each victim. His best guess--and at this point, it was less of a guess and more a logical conclusion--was that the pictures were the victims at the time that they were struck.

At least that cleared the playing field a little bit.

“Hey there, MB!” Mister Bug did not jump when the cat suddenly landed beside him. He did. Not. Jump. “Wasn’t expecting to see you skipping class like this. You always seem so professional.”

“I assure you, Chat, that this is _not_ a regular occurrence.” The two kept charging ahead, changing directions when another scream resonated from the courtyard. “But I don’t believe that I can focus on the lesson very well when an akuma is roaming the halls.”

“I feel you there! Spy Glasses over there is interrupting my favorite class!” Chat Noir sounded more exasperated than he looked. “Any idea where the akuma is?”

“Either the glasses or the notebook. One helps him find targets, the other does _that_ to whoever he hits,” Bug gestured to a paper sticking out of the wall with one of the art students on it. “It looked like he needed some prep time to write certain conditions down before attacking. If we can rush him and stop him from writing, we should be able to grab both objects.”

“Sounds like a plan, MB. Hopefully, we don’t even need to use our powers, maybe we can hang out after everything is done.”

“So now you are trying to tempt me into skipping class, Chat?” The tease fell easily from Bug’s mouth. If it weren’t for their masks and responsibilities, the time spent on patrol together would have made Chat his closest friend. “That isn’t a very heroic thing to do.”

“It would be an experience,” Chat cheerfully said. “If you fall behind on anything, Bug, you could just ask me. My grades are pretty good.”

“No talking in the halls!” The shout cut off the conversation and the two hopped away from each other as a paper blade cut the air between them. “You shouldn’t be disturbing class like that. I’m afraid I’ll need to take your Miraculous away as punishment.” He almost sounded sarcastic about it all, but the purple outline of a butterfly across his face made him harden his words.

Mister Bug removed the yoyo from his side and began swinging it. Chat posed on the railing, claws outstretched, and filled in the silence with, “I think destruction of property is even worse. Got a hall pass for that?”

The question was answered by another paper thrown in Chat’s direction, covered in violent black scribbles. Chat took it as the sign to charge and Bug followed his partner’s lead. The akuma didn’t look like it knew what to do, but his eyes locked on something that was behind the two of them and--

“Look out, Alya!”

The newly filled paper shot between them right as Marinette tackled her friend. The thrown paper, inscribed with “glasses” and the offense of “phone out in hallway”, acted like a blade and cut through Marinette’s jeans, leaving a red gash as it embedded in the wall. It was good to know that no one would get absorbed by the paper if it missed its target, but the injury counteracted that comfort.

“Mari!” Alya didn’t put up her phone, but she did move it to focus on the cut on Marinette’s leg. “Girl, that doesn’t look too good.”

“It’ll be fixed with the Cure,” Marinette, Bug was happy to note, didn’t let her voice tremble. Her stance was a bit weak from the injury, but she held no fear in her gaze. Even Hall Monitor seemed to shrink back from her. “It must be in his glasses, those look harder to grab than the notebook.”

Bug nodded. “Chat, keep us covered.” He threw the yoyo into the air and summoned his Lucky Charm while Chat used his staff to protect them from the papers thrown their way.

That fell in his hand was a small lighter, no bigger than his palm. Marinette’s brow furrowed, but he was already looking around. The papers… the ceiling… the sprinkler...

“Chat!” The cat looked back while Marinette worked on getting Alya away from the scene. He had a feeling that the only thing keeping the reporter from staying was the blood on her friend’s leg. “Try to get a paper stuck right there.” He pointed up at a sprinkler beside a glass section of the ceiling.

Chat’s baton extended upward, launching the hero up to where Bug had pointed. Several papers, sloppily written, lodged into the ceiling beside the sprinkler. Chat fell back to the ground as one of the papers shattered the glass ceiling, showering shards down into the school. That was fine--that worked in Bug’s favor.

“Keep him busy, I’m going to use this.” Bug showed off the lighter before hooking the yoyo on the metal bars, free from holding the glass. The position got him close enough to reach the papers in the ceiling and light them with the small red flame that came from the charm. The papers lit easily and the sprinkler reacted to the heat.

Hall Monitor looked up at the right time. The water splattered on the telescopes formed from the akumatized glasses, effectively blinding him. Chat didn’t need any instructions--the item was destroyed quickly with a happy shout of _Cataclysm_!

The butterfly floated out as the glasses crumbled to black dust. The boy that had run past the classroom earlier slumped to the ground, looking tired and distressed. The glasses remained broken in Chat’s hand, but the boy kept his notebook, a simple thing with a galaxy painted on the corner, close. Bug dropped down from the ceiling, caught the butterfly on the way, and had it purified by the time his feet touched the ground. The empty lighter was soon gone, replaced by a wave of ladybugs that had students and teachers popping up around the hall and the cut on Marinette’s leg healed.

“So, MB, still feel like skipping with me?” Chat teased as he held out his hand. Bug returned the gesture with a smile.

“Not today, Chat. It's bad enough that I’m sneaking out every night to protect Paris, I don’t think my mother would appreciate me skipping school with a boy dressed in a catsuit.”

“Completely fair.” Chat shrugged and looked toward the students. Most were being escorted by teachers back to their classrooms, though one pigtailed girl was holding back Alya.

“Did you hear that, Mari?” Alya’s excited voice easily caught their attention. “Mister Bug has a _mother_. I thought he was some sort of angsty orphan.” Held back by the collar of her shirt, the reporter waved her arms to get their attention. Bug was impressed with the strength that Marinette was showing--even Chat had struggled to keep Alya from rushing into danger several times, but here was Marinette easily holding her back with a single arm. “Mister Bug, you can’t just drop information like that without explaining. Can you tell us more about your family? Do you know anything about Chat Noir’s family? Do you share the same family?”

“Let’s get going, Chat. I don’t want to risk getting cornered by her with our countdowns started.” His earrings were down to three dots, while Chat still had four of his marks left. It was a weak excuse, but neither of them pointed it out.

“Sure thing, Bug. See you tonight for patrol?”

Mister Bug nodded and waved at the remaining people in the lobby before swinging off to transform back into Félix. He smiled as he walked back to the classroom, only stopping to watch as Marinette comforted the akuma victim.

* * *

The day passed by with the majority of the class worrying about Marinette’s injury despite the fact that it was completely healed by the Miraculous Cure. Alya, Nino, and Adrien stayed by her side while Kim and Alix raced to do anything that required her standing--turning in a paper, getting food for lunch, going up to a teacher to ask a question. 

It was suffocating.

Even Ms. Bustier seemed annoyed by it at the end of the class. She told them all their assignment for the night and then, with the passivity that led to many issues in her original timeline, gave a smile to Marinette and left the room.

“Do you need any help getting back to the bakery, Mari?” Alya offered as soon as Ms. Bustier had fully left.

“You just want to theorize about the akuma, don’t you?” Marinette accused with a grin. “We both know that the Cure fixed me up, Alya.”

“I just want to make sure you’re good. No one has been injured to the point of _bleeding_ yet.” Alya looked at Marinette with a determined gaze before pulling out her phone, a recording app already activated. “But, if you want to give me an interview about what it felt like, I wouldn’t deny you.”

“Leave her alone, dudette.” Nino stood up and tapped Alya’s shoulder. Adrien backed them with a smile at Marinette that would have made her swoon if she were any younger. “You can grill her tomorrow. She’s had a lot today, give her a break for now.”

There was something more with that. Nino stared hard at Alya before glancing around at the other students, something over Marinette’s shoulder, and then back to the reporter. Alya’s eyes widened just a bit before she nodded with an excited grin on her face.

“You know what, Nino? You’re completely right. Adrien!” The model jumped as Alya pointed at him. “Do you have anything that you’re doing right now?”

“Not that I know of,” he confessed. “My next shoot isn’t until tomorrow, and Nathalie hasn’t told me to come straight home today.”

“Awesome, then you can tell me what it felt like to get caught in one of the papers.” Marinette struggled not to laugh. His excuse was that the akuma had hit him. Félix had been smarter by claiming that he had hidden in a closet when he couldn’t find Adrien, but had watched Alya’s live stream on his phone.

Adrien opened his mouth to say something--probably a bad excuse as to why he couldn’t provide information--when Alya grabbed him and dragged him out of the room. Marinette took her time packing her stuff while everyone else slowly went on with their own lives. The only oddity was Rose, who giggled as she turned off the lights. It was no issue--the sun was still outside, not a cloud in sight, so she could see what she was doing as she struggled to pack.

“Marinette. Here.”

She looked up from her bag, giving up on trying to force everything to fit inside, to come face-to-face with the handle of an umbrella. The other end was held by Félix--the only other one who hadn’t left yet--who was looking at everything in the room except her.

“I’ve kept it for far too long. My apologies.” His voice was small and almost ashamed. Backed by the sunlight coming through the windows with the ceiling lights turned off, he looked the very image of a shy schoolboy.

“It’s no issue, Félix.” Marinette grabbed the umbrella but didn’t take it from him yet. “You don’t have to give it back, I have others.”

“As do I. It would have been irresponsible of me to keep it, whether or not you agree with that.” He finally looked up at her. The passion of Mister Bug rested in those gray eyes. With the same passion, hardened by years of experience, Marinette stared back.

“Then thanks, I guess.” She finally pulled the umbrella to her and put it beside the single textbook that had yet to go into her bag. 

He nodded and gave a surprisingly loose smile, something that she had seen more often when Félix was around Ivan rather than her group of friends. “I suppose that I will see you tomorrow, Marinette. Try to stay out of akuma attacks until then.”

It was a harmless tease that she couldn’t help but counter. “Only if they don’t happen. Why, got you nervous today?”

“Of course.” The admittance was followed by a blush rising on both their faces. Marinette gaped at him and, after a moment, he shook his head and started toward the door. “Farewell, Marinette.”

He left the door open behind him.

With a goofy grin on her face, something more accustomed to her younger body than her older mind, she murmured a quick, “Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

She mentally congratulated herself for not mixing up the words or stuttering. Then she realized what that pride meant.

Oh. Oh _no_. He was just supposed to be her replacement. She wasn’t supposed to _like_ him.

With no other students around, Marinette was the only one who heard the impact of her head against the table.


	5. Pre-Birthday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rejected Chaos Idea: Write all the chapters but post them out of order, just like the show.  
> Accepted Chaos Idea: Tell your readers what the next chapter will be, but cut it in half and turn yourself into a liar.
> 
> So... yeah. This is shorter compared to other chapters, but it would have been a beast otherwise. This is where I progress the plot and project my crippling need for friendly relationships onto characters. Not a lot of fluff in this chapter, and I hope that the characterization is good, but enjoy anyway!

Marinette’s Saturday meeting with Master Fu couldn’t come fast enough. She was excited to see him again, to speak with the kwamis, to actually help in a way that didn’t make the two heroes of Paris worry for her. She was handling everything better, all things considered. She had more time on her hands since she didn’t have to hide away from people to transform. That left more time for her projects and schoolwork.

Hopefully, if she and Master Fu agreed on her involvement with the heroes, she would also have time for training again.

She took the same path as last time, a smile on her face in the cool morning air. She even had a box of macarons, similar to the ones she had when they first met, to share with him and whatever kwamis he decided to pull into the conversation. It was more of an apology than anything else. There was still some guilt lurking in her mind, upset at her for ignoring her own Master with her decision. She knew he would accept them--he always did, in the original timeline, even during the more stressful moments--but she worried about if he would understand the message.

No time like the present to figure out, she supposed.

The door was already open when she approached. She could see him sweeping the floor within. None of the kwamis were moving about, but she could sense Wayzz hidden in one of the plants Fu kept around and…

Was that Sass with him?

“Master, I’m here.” Marinette stepped into the building, avoiding a pile of dirt that Fu had swept beside the door. “I’m sorry I came early, I was just really anxious about this.”

“It is perfectly fine, Marinette.” He stopped sweeping and looked at her. She immediately looked at his wrist and, sure enough, saw the Snake Miraculous right beside the Turtle Miraculous. “I see that you brought some snacks for us.”

“Yep! I wasn’t able to get them flavored, Dad hasn’t hit his experimental phase yet.” That came after he figured out that she was the guardian but before he knew that she was Ladybug. Instead of making his family try new flavors of macarons, they would be fed to the kwamis, no matter how biased toward certain tastes they would be. “I thought that we could snack on these while discussing my next lesson.”

He nodded in understanding and continued to sweep while she went to put the box down on the table. “Is there anything you need me to help with before we start?”

“There is some wood polish over there,” he gestured to the corner with the hidden kwamis and a water-filled metal bucket. “Could you go around and make sure everything is clean? I want to make sure that we look as nice as possible when people come in for lessons.”

“We?” Did he mean the kwamis? Had she already messed up this timeline by proving that she knew of their existence, were they going to become commonplace, was everything already on the path to failure a week in?

“Of course. It makes sense for the akuma-fighting-girl to be the apprentice of someone who works on meditation for resisting akumas.”

Marinette let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “An apprenticeship?” The question was tinged with humor as she kneeled beside the bucket. “I know as much as you do.”

Something giggled beside her and she looked into the leaves of the plant. Wayzz, at least, was trying to hide his laughter. Sass sat on a leaf, watching her with a big grin on his face. She smiled and nodded at the kwami before standing up and moving the bucket to another corner to start working. There would be time later when the door was shut and the room was clean.

That time took an hour to come, in which she had to take a break and text Sabine to tell her that she would be staying much later than they had planned so she could help her teacher. Sabine had agreed and told Marinette to call when she was on the way back. Fu had chuckled at that and went to sit down at the table to enjoy a cup of tea while Marinette finished cleaning up the things that needed more manual labor than he could provide.

It was also Marinette who finally shut the door, giving the two green kwamis permission to reveal themselves more. Wayzz stayed near his chosen, playing around on the newly polished floor, while Sass floated to the air in front of her.

“It is good to see that you are adapting to this situation so well, Marinette.”

Marinette wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She could always drop her tea in shock, but that would also create a mess. She also wanted to cry--hearing those words were so nice they meant that someone else _knew_ , she hoped. The strongest urge was to hug the kwami, but he was small and a literal god and that probably wouldn’t go over well.

Instead, she asked with a trembling voice, “You remember me?”

“Of course I do.” If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought that the kwami sounded offended. “I was one of the ones to send you back. Even if you were Ladybug at the time, it is the lingering magic that lets kwamis recognize you.”

“So, when we see her, Fluff will also remember?”

“That is correct.”

Marinette gave in and pulled the kwami into a hug while Fu watched the two from across the table.

“We asked him about everything after you left. He vouched for you on every word,” Fu explained as Sass sat on her shoulder. 

“Good.” She picked up a macaron, broke off a piece, and fed it to the kwami. “So, you mentioned an apprenticeship earlier?”

Master Fu nodded. “With your parents’ permission, of course. You will only be training in name since it seems that you could teach me more than I could teach you.”

“You can’t seriously want me to train you, Master.” That would be weird. Marinette was fine learning from him, and even learning from the kwamis that flitted about her room once she had possession of the Miracle Box, but she wasn’t quite comfortable with teaching him what she knew.

“Don’t worry, I’m only joking about that. I will not be the one you will teach.” He stood up and walked to a closed door. There was magic behind it, though not as strong as the Miracle Box. The magic was tinted by the aura of other guardians, far more than just Master Fu and herself. “I am old and unfit to go running about with the Ladybug and Cat. You, from what I understand, have experience with both Miraculouses. I want you to train the two, however you see fit. We are a bit short on Miraculouses--you already know that, I believe--but we might want to put another Miraculous in circulation if Hawkmoth gets as bad as you say.”

“No!” Master Fu stopped from opening the door as she yelled, as she slammed her hands down on the table. “I mean,” she coughed a bit and lowered her voice, “no, I don’t need a Miraculous. I don’t want Hawkmoth to know that we have more than those two--not yet.” She stood up and gestured for Sass to head over to Fu. The kwami grabbed the rest of the macaron, which was a bit smashed now since she attacked the table, before flying over to join the older guardian. “I think I can train them without needing to transform. They’ll need to know about me anyway, it might be for the best that they learn that when I’m with you. They’ll also need to know each other out of the mask if we want them to get stronger faster.”

“What do you mean?” Now he seemed genuinely confused. This had been something that she had learned on her own, outside of the influence from the guardian and kwamis. She guessed it made sense that he didn’t know, especially if he wasn’t an active Miraculous user.

“Transforming increases your natural ability,” she began. “If you spend a lot of time transformed, those skills will eventually leak into your normal body. Training outside the mask is better. If you work outside of the mask, you get stronger faster.” That had led to almost daily work out sessions for the young team of heroes. Those were fun times, but it wouldn’t be possible without a designated gym. And with school in the way, especially in these early days of an akuma attack, there was no good reason to go out and train without seeming suspicious.

“So how do you plan to help them, Marinette?”

“As I said, we need them to reveal their identities so they can learn to work together better,” she hesitated before continuing. “We shouldn’t force them, though. We’ve tried to force identity reveals before, and it didn’t turn out so well.” Juleka, upon learning that Luka was a snake-themes hero that had seen an uncountable amount of alternate realities that only he could prevent, had disappeared for nearly two weeks to get over the revelation. It was a hard time for everyone. “Until they can train together, we can have whichever one is not patrolling come in and practice with me. Or, if things get busy, have one of them start their patrol with a bit of practice here. I’ll train them with their weapons and stuff like that, provided you have substitutes we can use while they aren’t transformed.”

With that, Fu finally opened the door. Marinette had only been in this room a few times--it was used more for guardian business than his day job. The training room hadn’t changed at all, which she couldn’t consider a shock: there were different bits of equipment in the corner, platforms to stack and jump over, beams that could be placed down and walked on for balance practice; a wooden cabinet was against the wall and, once it was opened by Master Fu, displayed forged versions of every weapon a Miraculous could provide; the center of the floor was covered in a soft matt surrounded by small ruins that would prevent a Miraculous from being activated while within, making battles fair tests of strength.

Marinette followed Fu over to the cabinet and looked at the tools she would be working with. The staffs, of which there were different sizes and weights, would be important. They all looked well used and a bit beaten at the ends, but they had the best condition out of most of the weapons within.

The only thing that beat them in quality was a small yoyo, heavier than the one the Ladybug Miraculous provided, but enchanted to let the string manipulate itself in a similar way. She smiled at the sight of it. When Fu left, she wasn’t able to take everything from him. She got the Miracle Box, of course, but most of the practice weapons had, eventually, been distributed to their matching users. Adrien hid the selection of staffs beneath his bed, Luka put the metal lyre in a box with all his instruments, Alya hid the flute with her cameras since her sisters never rooted around there. Seeing everything here and together was nice.

Then her eyes moved further and looked at the things that they weren’t able to keep. A sheath shaped like a cane beside which was a thin blade--the weapon of Hawkmoth, even though he preferred bludgeoning his opponents. Then, a bit higher up than both the items, were two carefully crafted fans with sharp edges. One was closed tight into a makeshift blade and the other was opened to reflect the light of the room.

“We’ll get them used to their own weapons first, but eventually we need to get them used to how the Butterfly and Peacock work,” Marinette gestured to each of the items as she mentioned them. She didn’t notice how the guardian jumped at the mention of the fourth Miraculous until he spoke.

“The Peacock is here in Paris?”

She nodded with a frown. “It’s here, but broken. We got the upper hand on Hawkmoth once and he gave the damaged Miraculous to Mayura. She doesn’t appear for a while, but I still want them to be prepared. She makes things… difficult.”

Sass nodded. “That she does.” The kwami settled on her shoulder again. “Do you really plan to train them without a Miraculous of your own, Marinette?”

“Sort of.” Marinette closed the cabinet doors, glad that everything was there, before guiding Fu and the kwami back to the main room. “There’s a spellbook that I can use. One of the spells can unlock your potential--if I use that, I may be able to get my skill from the original timeline. That way I’ll be on even ground with them without needing a Miraculous.” It was a plan that would only work if the spell didn’t interfere with Sass and Fluff’s magic, but there were also spells that would make her stronger without needing to tap into the potential. She could fall back on those, even if having her old strength was preferable.

“Unfortunately, I am not currently in possession of that specific item, Marinette,” Fu chuckled and shook his head.

“You may not be, but I know who is.” She smirked and sat back at the table, grabbing another macaron. “I’ll be in the same area pretty soon--I should be able to grab it and take some pictures so we can translate the text.”

The other three in the room froze. Sass soon started laughing, a slow chuckle, as he put everything together. The other two watched her with confusion on their faces. She guessed that she would have to get used to that.

“And when will that be?” Wayzz asked.

“Chat Noir’s birthday is pretty soon. I don’t think I should waste the chance to use the distraction.” She continued when the confusion on her master’s face, “An akuma will happen on that day that will remove all the adults from Paris temporarily.” She left out that the owner of the book was Hawkmoth--they didn’t need that information yet since they weren’t prepared--and that he wouldn’t even be close enough to protect the book. “While Chat Noir and Mister Bug are dealing with the akuma, I can sneak in and get the information we need.”

Master Fu finally nodded and, with the plan solidified, took a sip of the now cooled tea.

* * *

Mister Bug enjoyed hopping over rooftops more than he enjoyed swinging on his yoyo. The toy was reliable in a pinch, but there was nothing that could compare to controlling his own path with his own legs as he traveled to the Eiffel Tower to yell at his own partner.

The schedule that they had drafted was saved as a colorful picture on his phone. In the little box for tonight--and Bug was sure of this--was _Mister Bug_ written in red. So, he thought that it was perfectly reasonable to change his course and rush to the tower when he saw a picture of Chat uploaded on Alya’s blog with the caption: _Late night contemplation, wish I could join him!!_

It was annoying and drew unnecessary attention. And, unfortunately for him, it probably had something to do with Chat’s civilian life. That was usually the case whenever the schedule got interrupted by the cat hero.

Chat didn’t even react when Bug landed beside him. The hero continued looking out over Paris, his tail-belt swinging back and forth in the wind.

“What’s got you so silent, Chat?” Bug asked as he took a seat beside his partner. The silence that followed was uncomfortable, only covered by the white noise of the city. Teens out late, couples enjoying a date night, parents traveling home after a long day of work, and the soft breeze that always accompanied the two heroes when they were this high up.

Chat started swinging his legs in time with his tail and asked, “What do people usually do at birthday parties?”

Bug was expecting a few things, but that certainly wasn’t one of them. Chat--the happy-go-lucky, pun-loving, cat-themed hero--was wondering about birthday parties? “I haven’t been to a lot, Chat,” Bug confessed with a frown on his face, “but I’ve seen some.” In the last place he and his mom had lived, he wasn’t the most popular in his class. He bore witness to the planning of one more often than he attended them. “Depends on who you are, really. Cake seems to be a constant, same with presents. Some people don’t even have a party--I know a girl who got her friends together and locked them in an escape room for her birthday.”

“That sounds like fun,” Chat immediately replied. The swinging of his legs and tail stopped. “Can I ask you something, Bug?”

“You just did, Chat.” Neither hero laughed. “Go ahead, though.”

“Do you think I deserve a birthday party?”

Again with the unexpected question. Alya had been more correct with her theory of contemplation than Bug thought.

“Yeah, I think you do.” It wasn’t a lie. Even Bug had had a party when he was much younger. Chat was just about his age, somewhere around 14 if he had to guess, and was asking some hard questions. This one was easy to answer. “And if anyone says that you don’t deserve one, you give me a name. I’ll make sure that you get a party myself, and my gift is going to be them seeing how wrong they are.”

That, finally, draws a short laugh out of his partner. The joy at getting a reaction out of his partner is short-lived. “It’s my father. He doesn’t want me to have a party--he’s never _let_ me have a party. And now I finally have friends and I really want to spend my day with them, but he isn’t allowing it and I don’t know if he’ll change his mind.”

It came out a hurried mess, but Bug understood the majority of it. His mother spoke fast when she was excited and Marinette--he made a mental note to see if she could bake some sort of birthday cake--talked like that when she was nervous. The speed did nothing to hide the frustration in Chat’s voice, the sadness of a child who had been denied happiness for too long.

“When’s your birthday?” Bug asks without thinking. “We just missed my birthday, but I think we’ll be together long enough to celebrate it next year. Anyway, tell me when your birthday is and we’ll both take off patrol and go celebrate. We could even announce it through Alya and Marinette--those two would make sure that everyone in Paris gives you a party.”

It was a bit over the top--

Okay, it was _very_ over the top, but it finally got a true laugh out of his partner. A smile now shined on his face as the cat leaned back and started kicking his legs again, this time with more energy. “They would do that if we asked, wouldn’t they?” He sounded happy when he asked, almost like he was caught in a good dream. “Wouldn’t that give Hawkmoth a clue to who I am, though? There are only so many people in Paris with my birthday.”

“Then we’ll make it a week. _Chat Appreciation Week_ or something like that. Alya can fix up her whole blog, Marinette could convince her parents to make some Chat themed sweets, we’ll have the whole city making up for every single birthday you’ve missed.” Bug would have cringed at his own words if he weren’t talking to his best friend right now--because that was what Chat was to him, without a doubt. Ivan and Mylène were good, being around Marinette and her group was enjoyable, but Chat Noir was more than just his partner. Even with the few weeks they had been together, it would take a lot to ruin Bug’s impression of the hero.

“That would be so funny!” Chat broke into a full-blown fit of laughter as he imagined what a Chat Appreciation Week would look like. “Co--” the word was cut off by another laugh, “Could you imagine if people _dressed up as me?_ ”

Oh, that was a fun thing to imagine. “Could you imagine little miss Chloé Bourgeois dressing as you?” Chloé had made it no secret to everyone in Paris that she despised the “mangy cat” on every known level. “She’d do it for popularity, to fit in with everyone and keep the people’s good graces,” Bug continued the joke, “but she’d complain the whole time.”

Chat took a break from laughing--or maybe he passed it on to Bug because now the spotted hero found himself in a horrid fit of laughter--to pitch up his voice and complain in the _worst_ Chloé Bourgeois impression, “I don’t even know why we have that stupid cat in Paris. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Sabrina, I’m going to call Daddy and get him to remove this week from the calendar if I don’t get out of this,” he hissed and Bug wasn’t sure if Chat was trying to breathe or was playing into his character, “horrid black. Even Dupain-Cheng could do better, even if she has no skill.”

Patrol forgotten, crime silenced, and jokes covering up the sadness that Bug felt knowing that Chat’s father wasn’t the best of people, the two heroes made their own plans for a small party, just for the two of them, that would happen one night a few days from now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't post the chapters on Tumblr because my brother follows me and does not need to see my fanfics, but should I plug it with the next chapter? Would anyone just want to chat or something like that?


	6. Bubbler

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys better be keeping safe. That is a threat. I'm not sure what I'll do if I hear that ya'll aren't, but I'll do something.
> 
> College has been moved completely online for the rest of the term. This might not sound like a big deal, but I was a commuter student. I have an extra three hours every day to work on writing. I should probably use that time for writing essays instead, but this is way more fun. That being said, I'll be keeping updates to once a month until I have the whole thing drafted. I'm not sure how long that'll take because I have pretty awful writing habits, but I'll let you all know when I can up the frequency of new chapters.

There were two items placed on Marinette’s desk, both carefully crafted for a certain blond boy. The first was a blue scarf of a simple design, based more on something out of a _Gabriel_ line than her own ideas. It was slightly different from the first version of the scarf--she tried to keep it as true to Gabriel’s style as she could. Did she draw on her experience gained from the internship that had yet to apply for in this timeline? Yes. Did Adrien deserve to feel familial love even if Gabriel wasn’t willing to give it? Also yes.

The second item was new and bore her signature, something that no fan-wielding assistant could pass off as a gift from her employer. Another scarf in the signature black of Chat Noir’s suit. Hidden within rows of knits and purls were little paw prints that crept up each side. It was a quick knit, something that she had done many times before, but was still appropriate for Adrien. After all, he deserved it and it was almost therapeutic to make something for him again after so long.

Now she just had to wrap them, make sure that the one with her signature got the card and that the blue one got nothing so Nathalie could use it as a gift from Gabriel. A simple plan that wouldn't be foiled.

"Marinette, Alya is here to walk you to school!" Sabine called up from the bakery of the Dupain-Cheng household.

"Send her up, I'm busy with something," Marinette responded without a thought. There was nothing for her to hide this time around--no kwami or collage of Adrien. All she had was herself and her designs, and she wouldn’t have to worry about either if things kept going well.

“I figured you’d be already prepped for Sunshine’s birthday, Mari,” Alya teased as she climbed into the pink-walled room. “Not really showing off that _I’m his first friend_ material, girl.”

“Oh, shut up,” Marinette waved a hand to silence her friend. “You can’t say that when I’m over here wrapping _two_ gifts. How many did you get him?”

Alya shrugged. “Thought you had that covered with your double scarf. Worse comes to worst, I have a compilation of Chat Noir’s best moments that I’ll send him later.” Adrien had proved to be a major Chat fanboy, though he didn’t hold back any love from Mister Bug. It was amusing to watch, especially whenever somebody gifted the model a piece of his own merch.

“Only the black one is from me. I don’t think that his dad is a good enough guy to give Adrien a gift.” Did an akumatized best friend count as a gift? She doubted it. It was too early in the timeline for him to be excited about Gabriel’s absence, so that wouldn’t work either. 

“I thought that you would talk better about a designer icon like _the_ Gabriel Agreste,” Alya teased as Marinette motioned for the reporter to help wrap the scarves. She was already packaging the darker one because of its importance, so Alya picked up the blue scarf and began working. “He’s one of the biggest names right now.”

“He may be a big name, but I’m still friends with Adrien. He nearly cried when Nino sent him a meme in class--his first meme! That boy hasn’t lived, and I don’t think we can blame anyone else,” Marinette explained. “I just want him to have a good birthday, and I think that his father’s love is what he really wants.”

“So you’re faking his father’s love?”

“Yep,” then, as an afterthought, she added, “at least until he drops the ball. Nino and I will apply for joint custody over him. He’ll spend weekends at Nino’s, but I’ll get him most of the time to make sure that he eats real food.”

“Oh, so you and Nino? You don’t think there’ll be anybody else in your future who you’d be willing to parent a model with?” Alya teased as she fit “Gabriel’s” scarf into one of the boxes Marinette had prepared earlier. “Maybe another certain blond who sits in a seat close to you?”

Marinette rolled her eyes and hoped that Alya didn’t see the blush on her cheeks. “I don’t think that Félix would appreciate that, Alya.” She finished wrapping her gift and grabbed the rest of her things for school. “Besides, you shouldn’t try to set us up just because I let him borrow my umbrella.” _Or because he used my umbrella_ was the unspoken addition that Alya couldn’t possibly know. That had already happened with Adrien in the original timeline and it had ended well enough. They went on a few dates together before deciding that they worked better as friends--partners in battle--than as lovers. It was what had driven Marinette to bring an umbrella that day, just so she could avoid that awkward crush.

Giving it to Félix wasn’t what she intended to do with it, but she couldn’t just _not_ help.

Alya finished boxing “Gabriel’s” scarf. “Keep it hidden--we’ll stop by the Agreste mansion during lunch or something and drop it in the mailbox. As long as M. Agreste doesn’t have a gift,” which, she knew for a fact, he didn’t, “then Adrien will get it eventually.”

“Can do!” Alya happily slipped it into her bag as the two made their way down through the bakery. Marinette hugged her mother good-bye, Alya gave a happy wave to Tom as they passed by the counter, and then the pair was off for an early--at least, for Marinette--start.

“So, when are you going to give him your real gift,” Alya prodded once they were closer to the school. “He may be the pretty boy model, but he’s still got a lot of fans. And you _know_ that Chloé is going to be hanging off him all day.”

“Just whenever I can. There’s plenty of time in the day, especially if Nino gets permission for the party. If I don’t get it to him before school ends, I can give it to him then.” The permission wouldn’t be given, though. She could always hand over the gift before entering the manor to take pictures of the spellbook, but that depended on when Bubbler would grab her. It wasn’t a big deal since there were plenty of opportunities, especially with Paris’ heroes roaming around at night, but it was still something to think about.

“Well, looks like now is your first chance.” Alya patted Marinette’s shoulder and pointed to the stairs leading up to the school. Nino and Adrien were on the stairs, talking about something while they looked at their phones. “Go on, make Sunshine’s day a little brighter.”

Marinette rolled her eyes but went ahead and started to approach the boys.

“Hey, Adrien!” she greeted cheerfully. “How’s your first birthday in a public school treating you?”

“It’s great,” Adrien responded.

At the same time, Nino groaned, “It’s going awful.”

She let out a gentle _oof_ herself in response.

“It isn’t _awful_ , Nino,” Adrien argued. “It just isn’t up to your standards. This is already the best birthday I’ve ever had.”

“It should be even better, bro. Your old man shouldn’t force us to jump through so many hoops just to get you a little party with everyone.” Nino angrily blew his bubbles. Marinette felt a weight rise from her shoulders in relief--if he had the bubbles right now then one of the pieces was in place for the Bubbler to give her the distraction she needed.

“I’m with Nino, Adrien,” Marinette admitted. “This is your first birthday with more friends than Chloé,” who was already storming down the stairs, so it looked like she wouldn’t be able to give him his gift yet, “and a party is the perfect way to do that. Spending time with everyone during school just isn’t the same.”

“Thank you, Mari.” Marinette tried not to laugh at how exasperated Nino sounded. “I’m supposed to be meeting with his old man during lunch,” okay, that was a good time to hand in the fake present, “I just need to present myself. Be _uptight_ and _classy_.” He threw on a posh accent that got a laugh out of Marinette before someone shoved her out of the way.

“Move, Dupain-Cheng! As Adrien’s best friend,” Chloé hissed the words like it would stop Marinette from existing, “it is _my_ job to celebrate with him. Go take whatever trash gift that is somewhere else.”

Marinette only half paid attention to what the blonde was saying. The shove had made her drop her gift--which, honestly, was bad enough--and sent her into a full-body attack by somebody. The body held strong though, keeping both of them upright as Marinette regained herself.

“Are you alright, Marinette?” Félix asked before she could see who caught her. She blushed at his voice, at the not-so-subtle thumbs up that Alya was giving her.

“Fine! I’m fine!” She quickly extracted herself from the boy’s hold and picked up the present. “I’ve dealt with worse.” Worse from Chloé, worse than Chloé. Neither was anything he needed to know about. “Were you coming to wish Adrien a happy birthday?”

He coughed. “O-of course. Yes, that was my intention.”

She rolled her eyes and playfully punched his arm. If he wasn’t running around as Mister Bug most nights, she probably would have hurt him. “Liar. I bet you didn’t even know it was his birthday.”

“Your insight is impeccable, Marinette,” Félix let out a good-humored chuckle as Alya tried to sneak around them to join up with Nino. Keyword _tried_ because she definitely heard Alya whisper _go get him_ before joining the DJ. “No one told me that it was his birthday.”

She shrugged and started up the stairs after the rest of the class, assuming that Félix would follow. “Chloé was the one who let it slip first, then Nino claimed _bro privileges_ and excluded the rest of us from planning the party. At this point, I think just recognizing that it is his birthday would be a good gift.”

“Has he not had good birthdays before?” Marinette frowned.

“In a way,” Marinette still admitted. “His dad has always been pretty strict, I think, so he’s never really celebrated his birthday before.” It wasn’t going to get any better either, with his mother’s hidden coma, his increased role in the _Gabriel_ line, and his father taking up the mask of Hawkmoth for what would hopefully no longer be ten years. “Nino’s trying to get M. Agreste to allow a party, but I don’t think that it’ll work.”

“That is a shame. I would have liked to go and experience it with you.” The steps behind her stopped as he spoke. Her own steps slowed--she hoped that he didn’t notice. “You and everybody else, that is. It has been some time since my last party, and I think that this class would make such a thing,” his steps started back up as he searched for an adequate word, “interesting.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” The parties got wilder as they got older, and the ever-growing Miraculous Team within the boundaries of the class only increased that. The true party didn’t start until everybody was suited up and seeing who could throw their partner farther across Paris. Chat usually won by launching her with the aid of his staff. After the incident, Carapace took that title by throwing Rena across Paris on his shield. The victory was never as sweet without Chat there, but they made it work.

“If Nino’s party does get approved, would you like to attend it with me?” Félix’s question made that now constant blush on her face flare again.

 _Yes_ , she wanted to say, _I would like that very much_. She had a job to do though, and going on some sort of not-date to Adrien’s non-existent party with Félix would make it hard to sneak away and take care of business.

* * *

Félix honestly thought that things were going well. He had caught the sly glances from the rest of the class as they left him and Marinette at the stairs, alone and without interruptions. Adrien’s party was honestly a surprise--he hadn’t thought of anyone else’s party when he and Chat were going to be celebrating that night--but it provided _opportunity_. If there was one thing that Félix Culpa had learned, it was that an opportunity like this shouldn’t be wasted.

So, with all the nonchalance of a teenager talking to his definitely-not-a-crush, he asked, “If Nino’s party does get approved, would you like to attend it with me?”

Oh no, that was rough. Félix flinched and thanked Tikki, who he could feel giggling in his pocket, that Marinette wasn’t facing him when he asked. He did see her stumble a little bit at his question. He may have been ready to catch her as many times as needed--which was necessary considering how often she was thrown around during akuma attacks--but that wasn’t what he needed right now.

Instead of falling back onto him, Marinette reached the top of the stairs and stopped walking. She looked down, face flushed, constantly keeping her eyes averted even as he caught up and stood beside her.

“That sounds great, Félix, but…” he felt his heart drop as she searched for an excuse, “I have something really important I need to do today. I wasn’t going to stay for a long time at the party. I don’t want to waste your time like that.”

“I see.” He didn’t, but she didn’t sound like she wanted to discuss what that _something really important_ was. She, at least, sounded sorry. That was only a small comfort. “I’m sorry for not considering that you might have something more going on today.” Wait, was that too cold? He wished he had someone with him, Ivan or Mylène--he would even take Chloé at this point if it meant that all of Marinette’s focus wouldn’t be on him.

“No, you shouldn’t be sorry, Félix,” Marinette waved her hand like that would soothe the foolish burning in his heart. He was just being dramatic now--he was Mister Bug, he shouldn’t be this affected by some girl, who was admittedly very pretty, who had lent him an umbrella. “We could try to get together after the party or during the weekend. It’s just that I’m going to be busy during the actual party part, if it even happens.”

 _If it even happens_? He knew that Gabriel Agreste was uptight and controlling, but was she saying that she didn’t even want the party even though she had been so clearly for it earlier? 

As if sensing that he was spiraling, Tikki hit him from her place in his pocket. He shoved a hand in, not to attack the kwami or anything, but to thank her for helping him. She cuddled up to his hand in response and he felt a sense of calm wash over him, like it was Tikki herself who was controlling how he felt. With the odd powers that the small goddess had, it wasn’t that far fetched.

He finally focused on the world around him and was shocked to find that Marinette was holding her phone out to him, a new contact brought up. Some charms dangled from the case--the little black cat and ladybug were the most prominent. He tried no to read too much into it as he took the phone and began putting in his number.

“I’ll let you know when I’m free and we can hang out at the bakery,” Marinette offered once he handed back the phone. She typed in his name and slipped her phone back into her pocket before continuing to the classroom.

Classes passed by uneventfully. Adrien and Nino went to the Agreste manor during lunch to talk with M. Agreste, Alya and Marinette followed after them to give Adrien his present. Félix spent his lunch with Ivan, Mylène, Juleka, and Rose. The one who guided their conversation was the little blonde, who excitedly chatted away about the “prime opportunity for romance” that was offered to Félix before school.

“It makes sense that she would turn you down, Fé,” Rose calmly said. “She’s always busy, helping with other people or her parent’s bakery. There’ll be other opportunities to ask her out.”

“I wasn’t asking her out,” he snapped, though it was weakened by the topic at hand. “I just wanted to accompany her-”

“On a date!” Rose excitedly added.

“-to Adrien’s party. Nothing more than wanting to know one of my classmates better,” he finished. “She could have just said that she didn’t want to go with me, she didn’t need to make up a vague excuse.”

“Woah, dude, Marinette doesn’t lie like that,” Juleka, who had been silent for the most part, sounded offended as she spoke. 

“If she says that she has something going on, then she has something going on. I don’t think she’s ever willingly denied hanging out with people, no matter how well she knows them,” Mylène added.

“Sorry.” It was an honest apology. “I’m sort of spiraling right now. I wasn’t expecting her to reject me like that, even if she did do it gently.”

“She’ll make it up later,” Rose assured. “Besides, she has your number now! Isn’t that something to be happy about?”

“Wait, you gave her your number?” Ivan shifted in surprise, slightly displacing Mylène who was curled against his side.

Félix nodded. “So she could let me know when she is free. It was her idea.” Rose already had hearts in her eyes from the romance about it all. Juleka patted her friend on her shoulder, keeping the pink-clad girl down.

“That means that she still cares, Fé,” Mylène cheerfully said. “Quit being such a downer and let her take charge. After all, I heard that she is pretty good with relationships.”

What? How many had she been in? Would his inexperience scare her away?

“Oh yeah, didn’t she help Mister Bug get you two together?” Rose leaned forward, slipping out of Juleka’s grasp. “Then there was last year,” her voice trailed off as she reminisced about the different romantic pairings that Marinette had brought together.

Juleka chimed in, “What she is trying to say is that if Marinette is interested in you romantically then you’ll be in good hands. If she isn’t,” and that was the true fear, that she was just playing around with him and only saw him as a friend, “then she’ll make sure to let you know.”

That made sense with what he had seen from her, a least. He let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding at Juleka’s assurance. Having all these people around, people who have shared a class with Marinette before and knew her better than he did--at least for now if everything went to plan--was easing his nerves more than he thought.

Somebody’s phone vibrated against the table, a loud noise that caught the group’s attention, and Ivan quickly checked it. Everyone held their breath when the larger boy said, “It’s Nino about the party.”

His face fell quickly, and the spirits around the table went with it.

“Adrien’s dad was harsh,” Ivan explained, dropping his phone lower so his girlfriend could read the text.

Mylène continued, “M. Agreste said that Adrien doesn’t need any distractions and that going to school with us was already enough. Nino’s basically forbidden from visiting the manor now.”

That was disappointing. Félix was honestly looking forward to the party, even if Marinette couldn’t join him. Then again, there would be another party tonight for Chat--a smaller party, admittedly, just between the two of them, but a party nonetheless.

Félix was going to say something about it, he honestly was, when he felt something ripple through the air. Something corrupted and misused, something familiar ever since he got to Paris. An akuma, released somewhere, that he couldn’t go out and find without some sort of excuse while he was surrounded by his friends.

The excuse he needed came in the form of a notification chiming from everyone’s phones. Something from Alya--a newly started stream on the _Ladyblog_. They had all signed up for notifications under Alya’s prodding, though it did help to have access to the main source of all akuma related news.

It didn’t take long for the stream to load. Alya was obviously in Marinette’s room--Félix had been there enough as Mister Bug to recognize the pink walls and designs--with the camera pointed out the window. Bubbles were floating up into the air, carrying adults with them. He heard Rose mutter a soft “oh, they are so pretty” before the akuma, donned in red and blue, landed on Marinette’s balcony.

“Hey there, dudettes,” okay, that was obviously Nino, “you both ready to party?” He didn’t wait for a response before waving something--a giant bubble wand-- in front of the two girls, bubbling them until they were floating beside him. “We just have to make a few more quick stops. I was thinking of hitting up Chloé’s first.”

Félix turned off his phone at that point. _Chloé’s_ meant the hotel, and the hotel meant his mother. It was as good a reason as any for him to stand up and run out of the school--Ivan and Mylène already knew about his residency in the hotel. With everyone distracted, either by the multitude of bubbles floating into the air or by contacting their own loved ones, no one was able to see the pink flash of light as Félix ran into an alley only for Mister Bug to appear between the tops of buildings, zooming over to the hotel. The akuma was hard to miss. It had already grabbed Chloé and Sabrina, and Bug could see bubbles rolling out of Le Grand Paris. Alya still had her phone out, Sabrina was texting someone--probably her father--and Chloé was arguing with a very calm Marinette.

“Of course you’d be able to handle this,” Bug fondly commented, trailing behind the akuma. He didn’t know the goal yet, and Chat wasn’t here, so it was better to stay back.

“Don’t worry dudettes,” the akuma chuckled.“We’re just going to go throw my bro the best party of his life.”

“Nino!” Bug could barely hear Marinette’s cry from this distance. “I don’t think that required taking away all the adults in Paris.”

“It’s Bubbler now, Mari,” Nino--or, Bug guessed, Bubbler--corrected, “and those adults were keeping our best bro Adrien from having a rockin’ party. Keeping them away so all the kids, just like us, can have real _fun_ is the best thing that could happen for all of us.”

“You do know that you are working _with_ an adult to make this all happen, right?” Marinette pointed out.

“Don’t worry, after Adrien gets his party, I’m gonna go out and get Mister Bug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous and then Hawkmoth will leave. Then, we’ll have no adults at all and can run free without those two interferring.”

Bubbler’s speech ended as he hopped onto the wall surrounding the Agreste manor. The bubbles containing his friends floated down into the courtyard of the manor, which had already been decorated for a party. A DJ stand overlooked a checkered dance floor with colorful lights shining on it all despite the bright sun overhead. The bubbles popped and dropped the group of girls.

“Now, I’m going to go grab some others who shouldn’t miss this party. Don’t. Leave.” Bubbler waved his wand threateningly. “I’ll know if you do, and I need you all to stay here for my bro.” The akumatized boy hopped away in the direction of the school, probably going to capture the students who had stayed at the collège for lunch.

Bug waited a moment to make sure that he wouldn’t be coming back before dropping down in the middle of the girls.

“If you hadn't let Lahiffe do this we wouldn’t be in this situation, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloé was already accusing Marinette. “You should have sat back and let me take care of all of Adrikin’s surprises.”

“Oh, you can’t really be blaming me, Chloé,” Marinette cut back.

“Yeah, Chloé. We aren’t Nino’s keepers or anything.” Alya jabbed a finger into Chloé’s chest, pushing back the blonde.

“Hey now, break it up.” Bug finally stepped forward, separating the girls. “It’s no one’s fault but Hawkmoth’s, for abusing the feelings of a teenager.”

“Oh, you’re finally here!” Chloé flung herself at the hero. “Please, just take me away from here! I’ve got to look out for my present for Adrikins, and staying here with _these_ people,” she gestured to Alya and Marinette, “won’t make it appear any faster.”

“I’m pretty sure that gift won’t be coming if all the adults in Paris are Bubbled, Chloé.” Bug worked to pry off the girl.

“I don’t think that we should leave if he is planning to come back,” Marinette offered. She kept glancing toward the manor doors. “He’s staying pretty tame right now, we shouldn’t tempt that. If he wants us to stay for the party, then we should do that and wait for him” she waved a hand at Bug, “and Chat to stop him.”

Bug nodded. “She’s right. I’ll follow after Bubbler and make sure that he doesn’t do any damage. If you all see Chat while I’m gone, tell him to contact me.” Marinette and Alya nodded at his instructions before he flung his yoyo into the distance and swung toward the school.

* * *

Bubbler slowly returned, each time with more and more students. Ivan, Mylène, Rose, and Juleka were the second group to arrive. Max, Kim, Alix, and Nathaniel were there to round it out. He seemed annoyed that he couldn’t find Félix, but Marinette kept the secret of his disappearance to herself as she watched Mister Bug on the roof of the manor, looking out for Chat Noir’s arrival.

She just needed Adrien out of the house. The Chat-themed scarf was left at the bakery, where she and Alya were grabbed, so all she had to do was acknowledge that it was Adrien’s birthday before she could run inside and get pictures of the book.

For now, she entertained herself by mingling with the other students. They were all more worried than afraid, but that fear would set in once Bubbler forced them to truly party when Adrien made his appearance.

He walked through the front doors of the manor, sullen look on his face that she hadn’t seen the first time around, and almost looked _giddy_ when everyone yelled “Surprise!”

“Hey there, dude! It’s your good friend Bubbler bringing you the best! Birthday! Bash! That you could ask for!” The akuma finished his introduction by throwing a track of normal-Nino’s music on to play. Adrien was all too happy to join the crowd of resentfully dancing teens.

Marinette cut her way through and took Adrien’s hand in her own. “Hey, Adrien, happy birthday. Again.” She hoped she didn’t sound desperate as she spoke. If she did, Adrien seemed too overjoyed at the party around them to notice. “I don’t have your gift with me--that got left at the bakery--but I’ll try to get it to you eventually.” 

“It’s no worry, Marinette. Thanks for coming.” He held her hands in his now, all the gratitude of a sheltered child radiating off him. She could see Plagg wiggling around in his pockets, see how he kept sending nervous glances to the akuma, but he still seemed okay with spending time at the party. “I hope this wasn’t too inconvenient.”

“It wasn’t.” That technically wasn’t a lie, this worked exactly to plan. The only inconvenience was the present, but that could be fixed later. If she couldn’t get it to him during school, she could find some way to flag down Chat and tell him to “deliver” the gift to Adrien. “Hey, actually, I _really_ have to go to the bathroom. Do you mind if I,” she gestured to the doors behind him to finish off the question. Adrien nodded. “Thanks, can you cover if Bubbler asks where I am?”

“Sure thing, Mari.” He finally let go of her hands and passed her, letting her go inside and take care of what she needed.

As soon as the doors behind her closed she rushed up the stairs and to Gabriel’s atelier. She had been inside a few times during the original timeline--mainly for things involving her internship at _Gabriel_ , though some reconnaissance had been done at one point. There were no cameras in the room this early in Hawkmoth’s career, so all she had to do was find the book and get the pictures before Chat Noir and Mister Bug took care of the akuma.

She crept up to the portrait of Emilie. The smattering of dull yellows was beautiful and was highlighted by the polished frame that bordered the painting. That didn’t stop her from grabbing hold and opening it up and putting in the code that she had memorized after several thefts--and, sadly, returns--of the book.

The first thing she noticed was the picture of Emilie, alive and well and poised with the same grace as her comatose body below Paris. Then there was the ticket and book, both labeled _Tibet_ and only reminding her of the Order of Guardians that she would never be able to meet. The Peacock Miraculous was eye-catching--she wanted to reach out and grab it, return it to the box and prevent Mayura from ever appearing, maybe even repair it herself so it wouldn’t stay corrupted.

He would notice that though, especially if he was driven to use the Miraculous.

She carefully reached in, balancing precariously on her toes because of course Gabriel would unknowingly use his height to inconvenience her, and removed the spellbook from the corner. She didn’t even put it on the desk before she opened it up and took out her phone.

Spells were first. She knew a few of them by heart, but still took full pictures of every page in hopes that there would be something useful in the timeline. Protection wards for civilians--and, now that she thought about it, herself--some healing spells that would work in a pinch for longer battles, and memory altering spells that were used in worse case scenarios--people getting too close to the truth, someone letting their identity slip on accident, trauma that came back daily to cause the more heartbreaking akumas. All of it was useful.

Then she took pictures of the unknown spells. Ones that summoned things into existence or enhanced people’s natural capabilities. Despite not being adept with magic, Alix had taken the most interest in those. The one she needed took some time to cast, but only had one prerequisite--the potential had to be accessed already. It was used to combat memory alterations or age-based spells, but it had worked with the time-altering abilities of the Rabbit Miraculous. Hopefully, it would work with Marinette’s current situation.

After the spells came a list of potions. Those were more of Fu’s thing, so she flipped over the many pages until she reached the depictions of each Miraculous.

“Ladybug, Cat, Butterfly, Peacock…” she murmured after every picture. “Turtle, Fox, Bee,” just to round out the center circle of the team, “Snake, Dragon.” She had no way of knowing if they would need Luka and Kagami, but it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared. With the last picture, she closed the book and did her best to shove it back into the corner it had come from. Eventually, maybe, they would need the others. This early on and with her help, though? All she needed were the ones currently activated and the ones that would be needed for retrieving the Butterfly and Peacock.

She carefully closed everything back up, making sure that nothing was loose or out of place, before leaving the room. She had students to escort out of the party--the battle had started already with all the noise she could hear as she stepped into the hall--and that wouldn’t be happening if she stayed in the atelier all day.

* * *

Mister Bug was exhausted when he landed in an alley by Le Grand Paris. Chat had been grumpy about everything, the akuma had been annoying by sending them into the sky with the adults, and Marinette had nearly given him a heart attack when she launched herself in front of a barrage of bubbles to save Alya.

“Spots off.” The transformation dropped in a flash of pink light and Félix was left standing with Tikki cupped in his hands. “That was more difficult than I thought it would be.”

“They can’t all be easy, Félix,” Tikki advised, “especially when it is someone you know. This is why we have to find and stop Hawkmoth.”

He rolled his eyes and shifted the kwami over to a single hand when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Tikki frowned but didn’t say anything as he checked the message.

 **Unknown:** You safe? Didn’t see you at the akuma’s party

 **Unknown:** This is Mari btw

He saved the contact and quickly responded.

 **Félix:** I could not find my mother and hid in the apartment. Please tell me that you are safe.

 **Marinette:** 👍

That was good. He had made sure that she was safe and had watched the ladybugs summoned by his cure wrap around her, returning Marinette to her room with Alya, but it was still a worry.

“There is something off about her, Félix.” Tikki floated up from his hand and looked into his eyes. “No one else was able to get away from the akuma except for Adrien, and it was his house. When she saved Alya, it was like she already knew what those bubbles did.”

Félix sighed. This wasn’t the first time that Tikki had mentioned her doubts about Marinette. It was always a partial truth--there was something that the kwami was keeping from him, he just wasn’t sure what it was. She refused to tell him every time he asked.

“She has done nothing but help, Tikki,” Félix defended his friend yet again. “We’ve seen Hawkmoth, so she obviously isn’t him, and I don’t think that he is the type of guy to recruit the help of a baker’s daughter.” The kwami opened her mouth, then shut it… then opened it again, only to shut it and repeat the process several more times. Félix sighed and gently grabbed her out of the air. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me everything. I understand that you don’t trust her--to which I disagree--but I don’t know _why_.”

“I can’t tell you that!” Tikki finally managed after a lot of struggle. “There is something more about her, and I don’t know if it is good or bad, but she isn’t telling you everything!”

“Neither are you, Tikki!” He was glad that he was hiding in the darkened paths between the buildings--somebody would have heard him if he were still in the halls of the collège. “This might be a mistake, me trusting her, I get that. I’m still Mister Bug--if something happens with her, if she turns out to be evil or something, I still have you and Chat with me. Isn’t that enough to get you to drop it for now?”

“Fine, just promise me that you’ll stay safe.” Félix nodded and Tikki went from his hand into one of his pockets. “You should get back to school and focus on that. You still need to prepare for Chat’s party tonight.” That brought him from his temporary fury.

Yes, that was right, there was still a party tonight. They would hide in the lights of the tower, enjoying the night and celebrating with some sort of treat. Maybe he could stop by the bakery tonight, see if Marinette was willing to sell him some sort of sweet, share a few words with the girl. It didn’t sound too bad--if he could be sure that no one would see them, he would even suggest to Chat moving the party to Marinette’s balcony so the three of them could celebrate together. She was an unofficial part of their team, after all.

No, he would keep this private. If Tikki was worried, he wouldn’t pull Marinette too far into this. Not until after he knew what was making the kwami so nervous around the pigtailed girl.

Classes passed by quickly enough, with the new gossip being about the party and Nino’s embarrassment as Marinette complained about Bubbler’s appearance. Rose ran up and hugged Félix--apparently, she had been worried about him since he never showed up to the party.

Sooner than he was expecting, Mister Bug was launching himself toward his favorite bakery. The light on the balcony was on, highlighting a small girl surrounded by flourishing plants. On the small table in front of her were two boxes, both carefully wrapped.

“Should you be spending the night out here, Marinette?”

Marinette smiled up at him with a raised brow. “I think I can say the same to you. Hawkmoth doesn’t do two akumas in one day, so you don’t need to be out here either.”

“Chat and I are doing something special tonight.” Bug settled on the railing around the balcony. “I guess it is a good thing that you’re out here. I was hoping that you might have something the two of us can snack on during our non-patrol.”

She gestured to the thicker of the two boxes. “Already had that planned, Bug. I needed to bribe you with something.”

“Bribe me?” It didn’t sound too bad if she was offering some of her parents’ baked goods. He wouldn’t be surprised if there were also some cookies for Tikki in there. With how aware Marinette was, there was probably also something for Chat’s kwami.

Marinette motioned to the other box--thinner and longer and decorated more than the other one. “I’ve been trying to give this to Adrien Agreste all day, that model boy who goes to my school. Chloé interrupted this morning, the akuma interrupted during lunch, and the party made me late for class, which caused me to leave it behind. Think you can drop it off for me after your non-patrol?”

He held his arms out to receive the boxes. “Sounds easy enough. Sure you don’t want to add anything more for the food?”

“I’m sure, Bug. Just go and have fun with Chat.” Marinette stacked the boxes on his arms and then shooed him off. “Now, get going. They’ll get cold quick, especially if you’re hopping around Paris.”

“You are the expert on this stuff, so I suppose I should follow your instruction yet again.” He carefully stood on the railing, tucking the two boxes beneath an arm so he could retrieve his yoyo. “Go inside and get some sleep, Marinette. You still have school tomorrow.”

“Sure thing, Bug. Take care.” He waited for her to descend into her room--and for the light seeping through the cracks of the trapdoor to turn off--before heading to the Eiffel Tower.

Chat was already sitting at their usual spot, a pack of balloons ripped open beside him. Half of them were already inflated and tied. Half of that amount rested in a pile beside the hero, while the others had been blown into the streets of Paris from the wind at this height.

“I brought us some snacks from our favorite place,” Bug announced, holding up the first box given to him. “She called it bribery, I’m going to call it a birthday gift.”

“Bribery?” Chat chuckled, letting go of the balloon he was working on and watching it deflate into the night. “That doesn’t sound like Mari, Bug.”

“She’s calling in a personal favor tonight. Wants this,” he held up the other box and waved it around, “delivered to Paris’ local model.”

Chat’s eyes widened. “Adrien Agreste?” Bug was surprised--with the leather catsuit, he hadn’t expected Chat to know the boy just based on the joke. Then again, a lot of the akumas that happened were around the blond and the class. “She made him a gift?”

Bug nodded and approached his partner, opening up the box of baked goods after setting the present down. Croissants, cookies, cupcakes--it was a nice selection of nearly every treat that Bug had gotten from the bakery. “I’ll go over and drop it off after this.” It was only a bit out of his way. He hadn’t interacted with Adrien yet in the mask, but it wouldn’t be that troublesome.

“I can take that to him,” Chat offered as he reached in and grabbed a croissant. “I need to head that way anyway, and I’ve talked to him before.”

Bug shrugged. “Should be fine as long as it gets to him. Go ahead.” He grabbed his own croissant out of the box then set it down to grab the package of balloons. “How has your day been so far?”

“It’s been weird,” Chat admitted, tearing the croissant in half before eating part of it. “My dad, he got me a gift this year. I just don’t know how to feel about it.”

“I would assume happy, Chat. There has to be more to it.”

“He’s never been so giving on my birthdays. Mom was always the one to get me presents, he would just make sure to write his name on the ones he thought would benefit me most. I wasn’t expecting it at all. I’m glad that he got me a gift--a _real_ gift--this year, but it doesn’t feel _right_ now that I have people who have given me gifts with no ulterior motive.”

“So forget about it.” Chat cast him a confused look and Bug continued, “Don’t focus on the things that make you upset. If you don’t like his gift as much as everything else, just say _thank you_ and move on. If he hasn’t cared enough to get you a gift before, you don’t owe it to him to care about why he is giving you a gift.” Sensing that this had been going on for a while, that if he continued he would end up insulting Chat’s father without ever meeting the man, Bug grabbed a balloon from the pack between them. “Are we messing with these for your party?”

A smile broke across Chat’s face. “Yep! They looked like fun. I don’t have helium or anything, so they won’t float, but dropping a bunch of balloons from the top sounds like fun, doesn’t it?”

“Sure thing, birthday boy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll see you all in a month with the next chapter. I'm really excited about it, but I'll be even more excited if I can pull it off the way I want.


	7. Dark Cupid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to let this chapter drop like I let my grades...
> 
> I'm actually really pleased with this chapter. Hope you all like the end.
> 
> Also, like, we've hit some major benchmarks since my last post. Over 2.5k hits, over 250 kudos, more comments than I could have dreamed of. And, with this chapter, the story should roughly be at 35k words. This is more work than I've ever put into any other project. You guys are spoiling me so much. I seriously can't thank you enough.

Félix hadn’t believed Mylène when she approached him that morning, inviting him to Rose’s house for a, and he quotes, “friendly get-together--no, study session--between friends.” Even with Ivan backing her up with his silent, firm nods, there was no way that _studying_ would be what they would do. He didn’t call her out on it--they were still his friends, calling her out would have been unnecessarily harsh--but he wasn’t sure what to expect when he agreed to follow them to Rose’s.

This, whatever this was, wasn’t it. He was seated in a plush armchair, bound to it by several pink blankets that Rose and Juleka effortlessly wrapped around him. There was no escape from Rose’s teasing grin, nor Ivan and Juleka’s pitying glances. At least Mylène was nice enough to feed him one of the cookies placed on the table between the five of them whenever he wiggled too much.

“Fé, I am so so _so_ sorry, but this is a convention,” Rose was the one to lead the conversation. She stopped for dramatic tension, or maybe to let the fact that she was sorry sink in, and everyone else nodded to agree. “Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and Mylène let me know that you don’t have a plan to confess to Marinette. Is this true?”

“Yes?” He wasn’t aware that it was an issue. It wasn’t his intention to go around and start confessing before he and Chat Noir had their hands on Hawkmoth, with or without Tikki’s suspicions about Marinette. She was already a target enough when she ran in to help civilians, he didn’t need Paris’ local villain figuring out that she had stronger ties to Mister Bug. “Was I wrong to assume that you would be fine with that?”

“Yes!” Rose screeched and threw her hands into the air.

“She’s just panicked because it’s Valentine’s Day,” Mylène covered. “But I agree with her. You like her, she likes you, and there is no better day than the actual day of love.”

“Even Kim is planning to confess to someone!” Rose picked back up, hands in her hair with a frantic look on her face. Despite being an absolute sweetheart, even to strangers, there was nothing that got the girl going like a wasted chance at love. “Kim doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body, but he recruited Max to help him and everything. You not confessing to Marinette on _Valentine’s Day_ ,” she stressed again, gesturing to the heart decorations she must have put up herself, “is a crime against her, as future missus Dupain-Cheng-Culpa, and me, as one of your friends.”

Juleka chimed in, “That’s uncool.” Félix just rolled his eyes.

“I understand where you are coming from, truly,” he started wiggling in his bindings until Mylène picked up another cookie for him, “but I don’t think that this is the way that we should go about any possible romantic endeavors. We’re still in collège--there is plenty of time to develop a deeper relationship and let everything come naturally. We aren’t even sure if she reciprocates these feelings. With everything going on regarding akumas, I don’t think tomorrow would be an ideal day to confess, should I agree to any of your plans.”

“You don’t have to confess,” Mylène said as she fed him the cookie. “You can just take her out on a fun sort-of-platonic-sort-of-not date. Ivan and I did that all the time before we made anything official.”

The boy in question just nodded as his girlfriend returned to her spot by his side.

“If I agree to do _something_ with her, will you all release me?”

“Yes!” Rose shouted, launching herself at him. “That is all I’m asking of you here, Fé. I’m so glad you finally understand.”

“I’ll do it on one condition.” Just as quick as Rose had hugged him, she unwrapped her arms and backed away with a frown on her face. “If any akumas show up tomorrow, I don’t have to do anything with her. She throws herself into those battles too often--she doesn’t need me to distract her by trying to treat her.”

Rose thought for the briefest moment before she nodded in agreement and released him from his blanket prison. “I can agree to that, Fé. I’m so glad we had this chat.”

They spent the rest of the day together alternating between studying like Félix was promised and planning possible activities to do with Marinette. Most if it came down to shopping with her, with Rose’s input that he should be a gentleman and carry whatever Marinette decided to buy. Juleka was the one who suggested getting a proper tour of Paris. Félix didn’t necessarily need one--he had a good amount of the city mapped out from his nights as Mister Bug--but there was no doubt that Marinette would know about the smaller, hidden places that were scattered about. Mylène had suggested Andre’s for ice cream then had giggled about it with Rose. Félix didn’t even bother to ask. At this point, less information from the girls was better.

Unfortunately--or, perhaps this was fortunate, Félix had yet to decide--Marinette was caught up in whatever Kim and Max were planning. She spent her whole morning chasing down the two boys, only giving Félix a brief greeting in passing. Classes were spent taking down notes and talking with Alya. She ran deliveries for the bakery during lunch, and now it was after school. Now, during his final chance to uphold his agreement to Rose, Marinette was confronting Max and Kim about whatever their grand plan was for.

Even if he was against the idea, Félix would admit that he was disappointed at his lack of progress.

Alya came up to him as he watched Marinette run off after Kim. “So,” she patted his shoulder, bringing him to the conversation at hand, “how’s it going, trying to confess?”

“I am not trying to confess,” he responded, standing a bit straighter at the accusation. “I simply wish to ask Marinette to hang out. There will be no confessing of any feelings, simply the two of us looking around Paris. I’ve been here for months and still haven’t gotten an actual tour, and I have heard people vouch for her navigational skills.”

“So a date walking around Paris? She’ll like that. It helps with her designs a lot, so don’t be surprised if she randomly stops or wanders off.”

“It isn’t a date. Why does everyone keep saying that?” Félix huffed and crossed his arms.

“Maybe because you two should be together. I mean, you like her. She likes you. The only thing stopping it is your constant denial.” Alya guided him over to a table to sit while they talked through it. “Then again, I would be nervous if I was confessing to Mari. I can’t imagine that it’s easy, having feelings for her like you. But you’ll never know if you don’t take a chance.

“So I’ve heard.”

The conversation cut short when both their phones vibrated. Félix smiled--as far as he knew, only Marinette and the two couples had his number. The hope that any of them was trying to save him from this conversation was dashed when he saw it as an unknown number.

“What the heck, Chloé?” Alya stood up in a rage as Félix opened the received image. Kim was kneeling in a puddle with a bag against his head, his hands outstretched and offering a necklace to Chloé of all people. It was a trainwreck on so many levels that Félix didn’t even know where to start.

Alya huffed and started texting someone. “What are the chances that Kim gets akumatized today?”

“Unfortunately likely,” Félix responded. Wasn’t he supposed to be lucky with the Ladybug Miraculous? It didn’t feel that way. Especially when he remembered that Marinette had gone running after Kim. “Try to get in contact with Marinette, I’ll let Mme Bustier know about Kim.” Alya nodded and flashed him her phone screen--she was texting Marinette and had already gotten confirmation that Kim was akumatized. A new text popped on screen, letting Alya--and Félix, thankfully--know that she had hidden while he was transforming and would work on staying out of the fray until the heroes could show up.

Alya snatched her phone out of his hands and opened up the _Ladyblog_ to start a new live stream. Félix rolled his eyes and motioned vaguely to the school. She nodded in response and then, without another word, rushed off toward the bridge that was featured in the photo.

Instead of following through with his previous direction of going to alert his teacher, Félix rushed off to the side of the school, away from prying eyes, and let Tikki float out of the jacket he was wearing today.

“Sorry your plan didn’t work,” Tikki apologized. He stared at her and tried his best to read her expression--she looked sincere about the apology, at least.

“I thought you didn’t want me to interact with Marinette?” Tikki was still hesitant and made sure that her stance was known whenever Félix planned to spend time with Marinette without their classmates. She had been silent since the day before when his friends tied him down but he had thought that it was just in preparation for any akumas that would come out of Valentine’s Day.

Tikki hesitated before answering, “Keeping close to her, as much as I don’t want you to, will give us a chance to see if I’m right about her. It’s dangerous, but we can’t pass up any chances.”

Her explanation made Félix’s breaths feel too large, like the air in his lungs couldn’t fit quite right. “I’m not sure how comfortable I am with you using my attempts to spy on Marinette, Tikki. Is there no other way to do it?”

“Not without appearing suspicious as Félix or Mister Bug. I don’t like it either. Sneaking around is more of Plagg and Trixx’s thing,” he didn’t recognize either of the names but didn’t bother interrupting the kwami, “but I’ll try not to do it often. I’ll stop as soon as we know what’s going on with her.”

His phone vibrated at that moment, lighting up with the notification of a live stream properly started on the _Ladyblog_. “We can talk about this later, Tikki. We’ve got an akuma to deal with now, and the plan was only if Marinette didn’t get caught up in the attack.”

Tikki nodded and Félix spoke the transformation phrase before leaving the alley, decorated in the spots of Mister Bug.

* * *

This was the first akuma that required dodging, Marinette realized as she rolled beneath another arrow and behind a bench. She was glad that the spellbook had worked--or maybe she was just getting better with weekly training under Master Fu, she couldn’t quite tell. She didn’t feel stronger yet, but she felt faster. Her reflexes were better now than they had been a month ago, and that was what turned close calls into easily avoided incidents as Dark Cupid focused on the girl.

“You’ve got so much _love_ , Marinette,” the akuma sneered, nocking another arrow to his bowstring. “You even cared for me when others didn’t. You tried to stop me from confessing to that… that…” his words rose in volume but drifted off in anger before a purple butterfly appeared over his face. Dark Cupid shook his head and aimed at Marinette again. “The world doesn’t need full hearts like yours, Marinette. People need to know _pain_ like I did.”

“That really isn’t how it is, Kim!” Marinette yelled as she jumped away from the arrow. It landed at her feet, closer than she would have liked, and bounced once before fading into a violent red smoke. “Chloé sucks, I get that, but you shouldn’t let that ruin you like this. Agreeing with Hawkmoth isn’t going to make things better. You’re causing the same pain Chloé did to you by doing this,” she threw an arm out and gestured to the people that Dark Cupid had managed to hit from his spot on the bridge. Several unfortunate couples had been targeted in his earlier effort to hit Chloé. Before he could pursue the girl, he had noticed Marinette and temporarily shifted focus. She wasn’t sure if that was Kim's memories of her leaking through or Hawkmoth recognizing her as a frequent participant in akuma battles.

“You know nothing about how I feel.” He raised his bow again and drew back, then focused on something behind Marinette and shot there instead. Marinette cursed and spun around to see who the new target was.

Alya stood there, phone gripped tightly in one hand as the other went to touch the arrow that had hit her. Marinette watched in horror as her friend’s lips took on a darker tint.

The akuma laughed and Marinette turned back to him. “If I can’t make you hate everyone, I’ll just make everyone hate you.” His wings flapped a bit harder, raising him up so he could have better vantage over the city. “Now, if you two will excuse me, I have a blonde to catch.”

Marinette wanted to chase after him but Alya was already on her, gripping the pigtailed girl’s shoulder in one hand as she shoved the phone in her face.

“God, Marinette, I can’t believe you’re doing this again. Always rushing into trouble, putting civilians in danger before the heroes even show up. No wonder they haven’t bothered coming here yet.” With each sentence the grip got tighter. Marinette struggled to get out. She didn’t want to use her full strength, especially since it could hurt her friend.

“Look, I understand that you may be a bit angry, Alya,” Marinette tried to reason as she moved to remove Alya’s hand from her shoulder, “but I don’t think I love you enough to break his spell with true love’s kiss or whatever. You should just let me go and terrorize other people.”

“Oh, so now I _terrorize_ people?” Alya latched onto the world like a lifeline. “You’re the one thinking that she’s better than everyone. Oh, look at me, I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the same one who rushes into akuma battles and interferes with akuma battles because Chat Noir and Mister Bug are so awful at their job that they need a baker’s daughter to help them,” Alya taunted, making sure that the camera kept track of Marinette’s face.

Marinette had never been more thankful for nine years of Lila Rossi. The words still hurt, but she was practiced in keeping her emotions under control when it came to people getting in her face.

She opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by a metal pole sliding between them before it shoved Marinette back, ripping her shoulder from Alya’s grip. Chat Noir stood on a lamppost nearby, pole extended out towards the two girls. Marinette studied his face and then stood up once she was sure that Chat hadn’t been hit by the akuma yet.

“Sorry to break up this catfight, ladies,” Chat smiled at them as Alya hissed and shoved at the extended staff. “I don’t think this is how Paris’ favorite akuma-watching-couple should be acting.”

“The akuma is Kim,” Marinette explained to both the hero and the live stream that Alya hopefully still had running. “Dark Cupid. He shoots people and turns love to hate. He’s going after Chloé.” Chat nodded and motioned for Marinette to head out--a silent message that was used quite often as an acceptance that Marinette would be able to get involved.

“Go on, I’ll take Alya to somewhere safer,” the reporter started screaming as Chat jumped down from his perch and scooped her up in his arms, “and catch up.” Marinette nodded and broke off in a sprint in the direction of Le Grand Paris. She pulled her phone out halfway through and watched the live stream on the blog. The ground speed underneath black feet before Always was set down on a bench. The camera followed Chat for a bit before moving to focus on some fans who recognized Alya.

When Marinette arrived on scene at the hotel, Sabrina was hit and now standing over Chloé. Dark Cupid looked on with a grin, watching Chloé’s lackey yell at the blonde. Without thinking, Marinette reached into her purse, pulled out a pen she kept on her for sketching, and threw it at the akuma. She could see Chat land on a balcony nearby, shortly followed by Mister Bug. They didn’t interfere yet as Dark Cupid turned to stare at Marinette.

“You again? I would have thought that Alya would have told you better.” The akuma flew a bit closer to her, removing an arrow from his quiver but not putting it to his bow yet. “You know, playing hero is getting really annoying. Maybe I should make some room for you if you’re so certain about trying to help out?”

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting. No, that was wrong--she was ready to dodge out of the way of an arrow or possibly Sabrina, who wasn’t close but could easily approach. The world seemed to slow around her as she watched Dark Cupid take aim at the hotel, not at her.

Would she have to kiss Chat again? Would that even work this time around? He had been infatuated with _Ladybug_ , which she wasn’t this time around, and that had faded with time. She didn’t love him anymore as anything but a friend, so she doubted that would work anyways. Bug could try, but she didn’t want to be the one to explain that to him without knowing how he felt about it. Maybe she could be a temporary stand-in for Chat, just like Dark Cupid suggested? It would be difficult without Cataclysm, but one of them could distract Chat while the other took care of Dark Cupid.

The akuma loosed the arrow and time sped up again as Chat was shoved out of the way by a spotted red hand.

Oh, of course one hero would cover the other. It had been that way with Chat to her, so why not Bug to Chat? Marinette rolled her eyes but tensed anyway as Dark Cupid started laughing.

“This is great!” Dark Cupid cheered, fist-pumping as that outline of a butterfly appeared over his face again. “Don’t worry, Hawkmoth. The cat’s nothing without his bug, so I’ll just sit back and let them take care of each other. Maybe I’ll go cause a little more havoc instead.” The akuma flew upward and pointed an arrow at Bug. “Hey,” the hero turned a sharp glare at the akuma while Chat scurried away to Marinette, “once you get his Miraculous, come find me.”

“I don’t take orders from you,” Bug snapped, swinging his yoyo with enough force that it chipped the concrete when it grazed the ground. “I’ll find you if I want once I’m done with them.”

Dark Cupid looked between the spotted hero and then the other two of the unconventional trio. “If you insist.”

Marinette didn’t bother to watch him fly away--akumas like him usually left a trail, so it wouldn’t be too hard to find him later. She focused on Bug instead. He slowly approached them, a predator doing his best to scare his prey.

“So what exactly does that akuma do again?” Chat nervously asked, holding his staff in front of her as some sort of guard. Marinette allowed herself to briefly wonder if that was Chat consciously choosing to protect a civilian or if it was the Cat Miraculous working through him to protect a bug.

She shook her mind of the thought and responded, “Turns any care into hate. Friends start bullying each other, lovers break everything off. If there isn’t anyone around them they just rage against anything romantic, which isn’t very good considering what day it is.”

Chat nodded as he absorbed the information. “And the lips are the tell.” She hummed in confirmation and shifted her stance to something more defensive as Bug took another step closer, analyzing them. “Should we split up? One of us takes care of Bug and the other hunts down the akuma?”

“If you’re confident that you can take me on solo, you can try,” Bug cut into the conversation, pulling the yoyo close and catching it in his hand. “I’ll even give you a head start on that plan of yours--five seconds, starting now.”

Marinette gritted her teeth but took off running anyway, heading in the direction that Dark Cupid had flown. Chat moved at the same time, backing into the empty space Marinette had left and retreating to the bridge he had arrived from. She didn’t bother looking back, even when she heard the sharp zip of Bug’s yoyo connecting with a nearby building.

* * *

Sometimes things happened too fast for Mister Bug to process. It didn’t happen often, but it still happened so he considered it an issue.

This time it didn’t come in the form of a civilian--aside from the usual pair of Marinette and Alya--getting in the way of an akuma attack, nor did it appear as the pieces of his Lucky Charm not quite lining up in the expected way so he had to improvise.

No, this time it was a matter of taking a hit for Chat Noir.

He could feel Tikki’s worry through the connection of the suit when the arrow landed on his hand. It didn’t hurt that much, honestly, and he was spared a second of relief at that fact before a burning pain ripped through him.

 _You should be more careful_ , he could imagine Tikki saying.

And for the first time since he had met the kwami, his only response was an enraged _Shut up_.

He gazed down at Chat as the akuma started cackling off to the side. Chat watched him with wide eyes and he stared back until his partner--the word burned in his mind, some form of familiarity bubbling up before being squashed by that now consuming anger--started retreating to Marinette.

The akuma finished talking right as Bug moved to grab his yoyo. Chat and Marinette were watching him too intently--it was bothersome, annoying, something he needed to stop. “I don’t take orders from you.” He started spinning his yoyo, his trusty weapon, and nearly grinned when Chat raised a staff in front of Marinette. “I’ll find you once I’m done with them.”

He knew who it was beneath the akuma. Kim. A swimmer, a runner, a cocky boy with a loud voice and strong loyalty. It was almost _admirable_ but there were so many things that annoyed Bug about him. Once he was done with these two he would find the akuma, yes, but it wouldn’t be to assist him.

The akuma flew away and Bug focused on his two opponents once more. They spoke about a plan, openly conspiring against him, and he couldn’t help but think about how funny it was. Even as Tikki screeched against the akuma’s power in the earrings, he couldn’t ignore the power that coursed through him. It was so obvious now that he had visible opponents and not some reclusive butterfly man. He could take Marinette easily--she didn’t even have a Miraculous. Chat might be a challenge, but Bug couldn’t see any fight in the cat’s eyes as they stared each other down.

“If you’re confident that you can take me on solo, you can try. I’ll even give you a head start on that plan of yours--five seconds, starting now.” It was a fun challenge that would give them a bit of hope.

Marinette easily met his expectations, immediately reacting and breaking out into a sprint in the direction that Dark Cupid had flown. Chat, ever the follower, moved a moment later and headed back to the bridge.

Bug finished counting to five, a man of his word even with the need to stop both of them trying to force his hand, before deciding to follow Marinette. She was smart, rivaling his own intellect when it came to akumas and how to deal with them, and that was something that pissed him off more than Chat’s dependency during battles. Some part of him rose up again, unwilling to injure his classmate, and he ended that idea quickly by tossing his yoyo out in order to catch up.

She was fast but not nearly as fast as he was. He easily caught up to her and thought he had her when he lunged for a tackle. She reacted before he could make contact, rolling out of the way and coming to a full stop as Bug hit the concrete and slid a bit from the force.

Still, she seemed shocked as she looked at him with wide eyes. “I didn’t think you would come after me.” Her admittance was accompanied by a shuddering breath as she tried to quell the adrenaline of the chase. “Sure you don’t want to try to take Chat’s Miraculous first?”

She sounded as brave as she always was when it came to akumas. “I don’t need the power of destruction to defeat you, Marinette. In case you haven’t noticed, I have one more Miraculous than you do.”

He didn’t wait for a response. His yoyo shot out, wrapping around one of Marinette’s wrists before pulling taut. She dug her heels into the ground and held firm, tugging on the weapon until it was Bug stumbling forward. She kept pulling until he was right in front of her, which would have been fine if she didn’t proceed to grab his arm, the one holding the yoyo, and flip him over her shoulder.

His eyes widened as soon as he was airborne--Marinette was strong in a very threatening way. Memories came back of previous akuma attacks. This strength wasn’t anything new. He had seen her lift things twice as heavy as him during the more dangerous akuma attacks. It didn’t feel good to be on the receiving end of her power, though.

Maybe he should have gone after Chat instead.

He withdrew the yoyo once he landed, flipping over himself so he could at least be balanced for whatever she tried next. Instead of moving in for a true attack she backed away, stayed light on her feet in order to dodge him if he tried again.

“Look, Bug, I’ve never been hit by one of those arrows so I don’t really know what you’re going through right now, but I’d like it if you could get past it without my assistance,” Marinette reasoned. Her eyes hardened and her cheeks flushed toward the end of her words.

“I don’t need your assistance to get out of this. Your _assistance_ ,” he lunged forward this time, forgoing the yoyo in favor of his fist, “is nothing more than a civilian not knowing her place.” She blocked his punch but didn’t return one of her own. He sent a kick into her side and it impacted, but just barely, as she sidestepped around him.

“My assistance is the best you're going to get, Bug,” Marinette snapped as he spun around. “And you may not remember what happens after I help you, but I definitely will and I don’t think that I can deal with that sort of embarrassment.”

There--he swung his yoyo out as she dodged another punch, wrapping the string around her entire body instead of just an arm and pulling so she fell to the ground. “You’re being vague again, Marinette,” he hissed, approaching her slowly. She wiggled a little bit but didn’t look panicked. She stared at him instead, unwavering against his glare. “You’re always so vague when it comes to how much you know. Was Tikki right?” He could feel Tikki’s energy go cold for a moment at her mention, but he continued on. “Are you working against us for the Miraculous? A third player in this stupid game?”

“Nope,” Marinette responded, all too cheerful. “I’m on your side, definitely. I just can’t tell you everything yet. Which is why I can’t let you remember this conversation.”

That was when she acted. She rolled along the ground, not to unravel the yoyo but to draw it further until it pulled tight enough to knock him unbalanced again. She then rolled back, rolled closer to him as he was falling, until she was directly under him.

He was ready for pain, for the impact of concrete that would hurt a bit but not do any permanent damage past the suit. What he wasn’t ready for was Marinette’s body padding the fall, the scrape of the concrete against his forearms as he braced himself over her, for her leaning up and… 

And placing her lips on his.

The first thing he thought was _ow_ because it was still a hard impact and he did not enjoy the way that his teeth cut against his lips, stopped by the force of her own teeth on the other side of the kiss. Then she pulled back, or maybe he leaned away, and all he felt was confusion because he was braced over Marinette, mouth a bit sore, with his yoyo wrapped around her.

“Marinette?” He drew away from her, calling back the yoyo and watching it instead of her as it unlooped itself. “When did we get here?” He looked around at the area.

“Just a little issue with the akuma. You should really think before you take hits for your partner,” Marinette joked as she sat up. She rubbed at her arms, which he could understand considering the force that the yoyo had seemed to hold her with. “One of us will give you a full briefing later. For now we need to take care of Dark Cupid before anything else happens.” She pointed off down the street.

She didn’t say anything else, didn’t give any more reassurance or information about what had happened while he was affected, but it didn’t seem like the time for the conversation so he filed all his questions away for later. He nodded at her, accepting her instructions because while he may be Mister Bug, the hero with a plan, she was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the girl who always knew what was going on. He stood up, opened his yoyo, and started running in the direction Marinette pointed in while he called his partner.

* * *

Marinette was right by Alya’s side when the ladybugs washed over Paris. The girl was harassing some fans of the _Ladyblog_ but had focused all her fury back on Marinette the moment the two saw each other.

The black lips were suddenly gone, Alya’s words were stopped mid-insult. The girl looked around at the changed location of the park instead of the bridge then looked at her phone, seeing that the live stream was still happening.

“Forty minutes?” Alya screeched. “When did forty minutes pass? Why are we here of all places?”

Marinette snickered and grabbed the phone from her friend, turning it so that she could look into the video. “Sorry you all had to see that, loyal fans. This is Marinette here with the _Ladyblog_ , confirming that Mister Bug and Chat Noir have taken care of the akuma known as Dark Cupid.” Marinette powered through as Alya squawked at the news, “We’ll get an overview of the attack uploaded by tomorrow at night, so please return to any loved ones you were with and make sure they are good. Just because they may not remember anything doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, so try and talk through any issues you might have thanks to this experience.”

Alya took the phone back at that time and finished up, “So, _apparently_ Mari and I have a lot to talk about. This is Alya and Mari with the _Ladyblog_ signing off until the next akuma.” She finally turned off the stream.

“You good? Nothing hurting or anything? On my way back I saw some pretty vicious couples and stuff,” Marinette fretted as soon as the phone was in Alya’s pocket.

“You know that Bug takes care of that, Mari. Quit stressing,” Alya waved her off. Of course Marinette knew, she just needed to play the part of a concerned friend. “I’m just a bit disoriented. I wasn’t expecting Kim to hit me or anything, and now I’ve lost forty minutes of my life.”

“At least you have the stream to re-watch,” Marinette weakly offered. “I wouldn’t suggest uploading it since you were out of it for a lot of the attack, but it’s more than some others will have.”

“I was right by you when I got hit. I didn’t say anything too bad, did I?”

“Just told me to stop helping Chat and Bug because I apparently think I’m better than them.” Alya paled and started stuttering out apologies. “It’s fine, Alya, it wasn’t that bad. I know that I can take it. We may have to announce an official apology to anyone who watched the stream. I don’t know what you said, exactly, but I heard a lot of harsh things from other people.”

“God,” Alya groaned and threw her head back. “This is so embarrassing. I was just trying to set you up on a date and then Hawkmoth had to go and ruin it. Doesn’t that man have anything better to do than mess up your collège romance?”

“You were trying to set me up on a date?” That was new. It hadn’t happened in the original timeline, but it didn’t take a lot to figure out who the date would have been with. “You were trying to set me up with Félix, weren’t you?”

“Sort of. He wanted a ‘tour around Paris’ from everyone’s favorite local,” Alya explained. “Rose has been talking about it all day, though. I’m surprised that you didn’t hear about it.”

“I was sort of focusing on trying to spare Kim from Chloé’s rejection, Alya.” Still, it was nice to know that Félix was wanting to spend time with her. Despite the situation, Marinette felt that the feelings were mutual. Even if they couldn’t have a relationship right now--she didn’t want one if she couldn’t be completely honest--it would be nice to spend some time with him. “It doesn’t sound too bad, though.” She went ahead and pulled her phone from her pocket, opening up her chat with Félix.

“Wait, really?” Alya stopped her from typing a message by grabbing Marinette’s cheeks and stretching them out. “Are you sure you’re the real Mari? My best friend would never casually agree to a date.”

“Alya, stop!” Marinette whined, slapping at her friend’s hands until she let go. “It just… sounds nice. You know, Valentine’s Day and all. Even if it doesn’t go anywhere, it’ll be good to get to know him better and without the rest of the class trying to force us together.” Before Alya could say anything else, she typed up a message and sent it.

 **Mari:** Heard from Alya that you wanted a tour?

 **Mari:** I know that the akuma just got finished (hope you’re safe!!!) but I’m up for it if you are

It would give her a good chance to confront Félix about everything she heard. Tikki knew that Marinette knew about kwamis now, and she didn’t need him getting in trouble for something that was already known. And if Tikki was suspicious, as Bug had mentioned, then she needed to come clean about something to gain their trust. She wasn’t sure yet how much she would mention during their talk, but she was willing to tell him that she knew about Tikki, that she knew he was one of Paris’ heroes.

 **Fé:** Are you sure? I saw some of Alya’s stream. I don’t want to put pressure on you.

 **Mari:** I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t sure. I’ll wait in front of the school and we can start there, if you want

**Fé:**

**Fé:** That sounds fine. I will meet you there.

Marinette grinned and showed Alya the messages. Her friend chuckles, “Oh my gosh, you guys are so cute. I’d say couple goals, but we already have two of the cutest couples in the school in our class.”

“And we aren’t a couple,” Marinette corrected. She handed Alya her bag, something that she no longer felt attached to now that she didn’t have Tikki with her, “Can you take this back home and tell Mom that I’ll be out a bit late? I don’t want her to worry.”

“Of course.” Alya wore a conspiring grin that Marinette was incredibly familiar with. “Go get your man.”

The two girls parted ways and soon enough Marinette was waving at Félix as he approached the school. He smiled at her, reserved and a bit nervous. Marinette sighed before he got too close but kept a smile on her face. So Tikki had told him about the conversation as Mister Bug. She hoped that wouldn’t make everything too difficult.

“Hey, Félix,” Marinette ran up to him. “So, a tour, right? Anywhere specific you want to go?”

His face flushed. “Ah, just anywhere you think I’ll like, Marinette. I trust your judgment.”

“Okay, cool.” She grabbed his hand and started dragging him off. “There’s this really cute cafe that I like to design at that has books you can rent out. A lot of students go there to study for exams, but it is pretty quiet most of the time. We’ll start there and then work our way around.”

None of it was a lie, but there were ulterior motives. The cafe was secluded and not many people walked the road by it, meaning she could talk to Félix about everything without this quasi-date going on for too long.

She stopped walking two blocks away from the cafe. She would have reached for her sketchbook but that was with Alya--probably with her parents now, considering how fast Alya walked when she considered herself on a mission. Instead she reached up and toyed with the ends of her pigtails, trying to find something to focus on as she turned to Félix.

“Félix, I need to tell you something,” Marinette began softly. Félix stopped breathing for a moment but she pushed on. “And right now probably isn’t the best time to tell you, honestly, but I want things to be clear between us.”

“Marinette, if you aren’t comfortable then you don’t have to say anything. This can literally just be a tour of Paris. I don’t care what Alya or anyone else has to say, this doesn’t have to be a date if you don’t want it to be.”

Aw, that was nice of him. Still, it wasn’t where she was planning on taking the conversation. “No, that isn’t it, Félix. During the attack, I heard some things from Bug. From you.” She quit looking around and looked at him instead. The flush that was previously on his face was gone, replaced by a heavy paleness that worried her. “I know about Tikki, I… I… I--” she took a breath, shook her head, and tried to push past the stutter that had worked itself onto her tongue, “I know about the Miraculous. I also know that you are Mister Bug.”


	8. Guardians

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, I'm back bitches.
> 
> Sorry for being dead for so long, life was a bit hard for a while there. I'm back and feeling better, so let's get this show on the road. A few little housekeeping things before we get started.
> 
> Firstly, this fic now has a set amount of chapters. 18, to be exact, including an interlude and epilogue. Each of the chapters now have titles as well. They aren't really creative but I don't really care. I'm going to keep this going and if I don't you guys have permission to witchhunt me. I wasn't really feeling this fic at the beginning of the year--to be honest, I'm still sort of not. I got back into it, saw how much I've already done, and figured I might as well commit. I don't care if this is good or bad, I'm not giving up.
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me, hope you enjoy this short-ish chapter. Happy almost 1 year, Soft Reset, you mighty beast.

There were many things that Félix was expecting Marinette to say. Something about her family, maybe, or to reveal a secret crush that would have crushed his heart, though he would support her through whatever trials she faced. Nothing could have prepared him for the fear that shot through him as she spoke.

“I know about the Miraculous. I also know that you are Mister Bug.”

The only thing that could make the situation worse was if she revealed that she was Hawkmoth. He waited for a moment, fists clench so hard that he could feel his nails cut into his skin, for her to transform in Hawkmoth’s traditional purple. All she did was stare at him, blue eyes hard, until a flush completely covered her face and she looked away.

“Say something!” Tikki hissed in his ear. He jolted and yelled the first thing to come to mind—

“What’s Miraculous? Who’s Mister Bug? I don’t know anyone by that name.”

Marinette chuckled a little and Félix could hear Tikki’s paw hit her face.

“You’re funny, Félix. In a cute way, you know? But, as good as a joke that is, I know what’s going on here. That you have Tikki with you.” Marinette looked around and frowned. “Maybe this wasn’t the best place for this, huh? How about we skip the café and head back to my place so we can talk this through?”

Félix was about to agree, but he could feel Tikki shaking her head against his collar. This was her problem as much as it was his. “My place is closer. Mother should be at work right now, so we can talk there.”

“I… I hadn’t thought about that,” she admitted. “If it will make you feel better, then we can go there. Can I just tell you one thing first, though?” Félix nodded. “Whatever happens, you _need_ to trust me. If you don’t, Hawkmoth might win ag—” she stopped and shook her head. “He might win. We can’t let that happen, Félix. We _can’t.”_

And that? That was serious enough—sincere enough, going by the noise of affirmation that Tikki released—to ease some of his worries. Not all of them, as there was still the issue that Marinette _knew_ in the first place, but it was enough to get him walking. No hand holding this time, but he was still working to ease his nerves.

“Wait a moment, you live _here?_ With _Chloe?”_ Marinette’s astonished tone brought a small smile to his face.

“Mother is friends with Mayor Bourgeois. He owed her a favor and paid her back in the form of a suite to stay in while we are in Paris. Chloe… prefers to ignore that. I’ve seen her take the stairs to avoid me, if you can believe that, when I’m in the elevator. It is quite amusing on the days that I don’t leave the hotel.”

Marinette laughed a little at that. “I don’t think I’d be able to take living with Chloe. She’s nice and all, but she’s a lot.”

“Nice isn’t quite the word I would use to describe her,” Félix replied as he guided Marinette inside and to the elevator.

“I try to see the best in people. Sure, she’s a little rough around the edges, but she’s only 13. We all have room to grow.”

Félix hummed as they got in the elevator. “You seem very self-aware of all this, Marinette. Is this how you knew about my…” He trailed off and Marinette easily filled in the blank.

“You could say that. I’ve had a lot of time to think since they were handed out, you know?” She leaned back against the wall as they climbed through the building. “There are more people at work than you three. And I’ve been trying to get more help for you, but there are still some things in the way. You’re lucky that I’ve been able to help during attacks and all that.”

Félix was about to respond when the doors slid open. Marinette sighed and gestured for him to leave first and he quickly guided her into the suite. Just as promised, his mother was nowhere in sight. As soon as the door shut, Tikki flew out and circled around Marinette a few times.

“You better start explaining yourself, Marinette,” the kwami hissed. “You are on very thin ice right now.”

“That’s… fair, given everything that’s happened. I thought you would be a bit more accepting, though, Tikki. I mean, you’ve meet me before. And I’m pretty sure that kwami are supposed to sense when someone is a guardian.”

Tikki froze and Félix held up his hands. “Hold on, that was a lot to unpack. You’ve seen each other before? And what, exactly, is a guardian?”

Tikki floated back over to him and began. “Marinette was the one to give me to you, Félix. I thought it was odd that she had the earrings with her and decided to give them to someone else, so I was suspicious at first.” Then she turned to Marinette. “I wasn’t aware that you were a guardian. You’re very good at hiding it, but now…” Tikki trailed off, but Félix could understand why. He couldn’t see anything different about her, but he could feel that _something_ had changed. It radiated from his ears, the earrings in them, as a comforting warmth.

“The Great Guardian doesn’t need to hide his aura since he rarely leaves his current residence. I’ve been trained for a while to take his position, so it is more important that I mask my aura so Hawkmoth can’t target me. Trust me when I say that I _still_ face less danger rushing into an akuma attack than I would if I let more of my aura seep through in the presence of an akuma. If he knew that I was a guardian, he could try to target me and get the other Miraculous.”

Félix took a deep breath and fell onto the couch, running a hand down his face. “That doesn’t explain what a guardian is, exactly.”

Marinette sat down on the other end of the couch and held out a hand. Tikki wordlessly landed in her paw and almost started purring when Marinette started patting her head. “The Order of Guardians is an old group that works to house and protect the Miraculous. Unfortunately, it is also a dying order. The current Great Guardian—which is the highest rank unless you are a kwami—made a… few mistakes back when he was still in training. The Order, everyone except for him, was destroyed. He lost a few of the Miraculous as well.”

Félix nodded. “The Butterfly was lost. That’s why Hawkmoth has it.”

Tikki quickly cut in, “Not only did we lose Nooroo, but Duusu as well.” She sounded sad when she said it.

“Nooroo, the kwami of the Butterfly Miraculous, and Duusu, the kwami of the Peacock. If Hawkmoth is here, then there is reason to believe that he is also in possession of the Peacock.” Marinette moved to run her hand through her hair, only for her fingers to get tangled in her hair ties. Félix tried not to watch as she took her hair out of her usual pigtails. “Anyways, the Order isn’t really making progress at rebuilding. Master Fu,” Tikki’s eyes widen at the name but Félix could only draw blanks at the significance, “hasn’t been trying to fix his mistakes. He barely let me join, even after I had shown some affinity for the Miraculous and everything. I’ve been wanting to talk with you and Chat, bring you both into the Order so we’re more connected, but it was never the right time.”

“So, what’s changed, Marinette?” Tikki spun around in Marinette’s hand. “Why are you revealing all of this now?”

Marinette laughed a little. “Aside from my own nerves? The akuma are getting more difficult, and a single pair isn’t strong enough anymore. I think that Kim—Dark Cupid, that wasn’t Kim at all, he wouldn’t do something like that, sorry Kim—proved that today. Even if Master Fu doesn’t send out more Miraculous, I’d like to get both of you a little bit more trained.”

“Okay, that’s a lot and we’ll put a bookmark on the whole training thing,” Félix cut in, sitting straighter as both girls looked at him. “I have a few questions though. I wasn’t aware that there were more Miraculous than the three… active ones right now. And, if you know _my_ identity, then do you know Chat’s?”

Once again, Tikki took the first part. “Of course there are more Miraculous, Félix. It would be so boring if there were just the three of us, you know? Outside of Plagg, Duusu, Nooroo, and me, there are 15 more Miraculous. Most of them are still in the Box—”

“The Miracle Box,” Marinette cut in, “houses the unused Miraculous and lets the kwami wander around in their own little plane of existence.”

“—but there are a few that are out and active. I used to be able to feel Duusu, but he hasn’t been used very often. Wayzz is still worn and active, though his chosen doesn’t transform as often as he used too.”

Marinette smiled, “And regarding Chat, I’ve known his identity since the very beginning. I didn’t give him the Cat like I gave you the Ladybug, It’s obvious once you know what to look for. The only reason you haven’t figured it out, I think, is because of the magic that protects all Miraculous users from getting caught.”

“Magic?” It had sounded fine when Marinette had said it, but repeated in his own voice just made Félix feel ridiculous. He’d come a long way from the boy he first was in Paris, disbelieving in anything that couldn’t be explained. Magic didn’t sound so stupid now, especially with a pair of _magical_ earrings current on him.

“Just some simple memory changes. Only those close to the Miraculous can see through them, and even that takes a lot of work. Think Clark Kent’s glasses. Once they go on, people are stupid about how similar he looks Superman. Same deal, just with magical jewelry.”

Tikki must realize something during Marinette’s explanation because Félix could see the kwami stiffen and turn to look at Marinette. When she turned back around, she almost looked resigned. After everything he had learned today after months of asking, he knew that asking Tikki what _that_ was about would yield no results.

“I’m planning to talk to Chat soon. Not today, probably not tomorrow, but it is something that needs to happen before things get worse. Master Fu wasn’t about to come and get you, so I agreed to take the initiative here.” Marinette’s face flushed and she pulled her legs closer to her, nearly putting her feet on the couch in her effort to form a ball, “I’ll admit that it wasn’t the best time to do it, huh? It probably could have gone way smoother. Sorry about that.”

Félix shrugged. “I’d rather hear about everything now than later. And, with how Dark Cupid affected me, it would have been suspicious if you _didn’t_ say anything. Tikki had already been suspicious, she would have told me about it.”

Marinette frowned. “Tikki, really? You’re suspicious of _me?”_

Tikki waved a paw, “I was suspicious. You’ve explained enough that I think you’re safe.” Again, there was that silent communication between the two of them. The change was on Marinette’s face—it had been neutral before, but the little bit of concern on her face shifted into a small smile at Tikki’s words.

“Anyway,” Marinette set Tikki on the cushion between them, “where do we go from here? I’ve told you about the Order and the other kwami and my plans for you and Chat… the ball is in your court, Fé. What do you want to do?”

Félix reached over and began petting Tikki in the same way that Marinette had. His hands were unpracticed, but he could still feel the beginnings of a rumbling purr run through the kwami. Marinette’s guardianship—something that would take more time to understand, surely, but something he would gratefully move past for the moment—must have given her plenty of time to learn the little quirks that the kwami had, things that Tikki hadn’t given him the time to learn yet.

“You’re right about needing to get stronger. If you hadn’t helped me with breaking free from the akuma, there is a chance that Chat wouldn’t have won. Even if we don’t have Chat with us yet, do you think that you could start training me soon?”

Marinette nodded. “I’ll schedule something with Master Fu so you can come in and meet him before training. I’ll probably help with a lot of the fighting stuff, but there is more to wielding a Miraculous than just physical strength. He’s a better teacher for all of that stuff.”

That was easy to understand. They had talked about aura earlier, and he had noticed moments when he was more in tune with the Miraculous—not just his, but the activation of others as well—than he normally was. Honestly, he would be disappointed if the only thing he had to learn was how to fight better with his yoyo—or without it, considering the gleam in Marinette’s eyes when she mentioned training.

He was in for… something. He wasn’t sure what it was. Or how easy it would be.

* * *

Marinette occasionally woke up early. It happened more often now than it did in the first timeline, but less often than it did before she time travelled. Her body hadn’t caught up with her mind—or maybe that was the issue, the difference between what her body required versus what she knew she could handle.

Still, she had something that she needed to do today. She had explained it to her parents the night before during dinner. “I’ll be meeting with a friend tomorrow,” she had said, “and we’re spending all day out, so I’m probably going to leave early.”

Even with that warning, her parents still commented on her arrival when she came down to the bakery before the doors were even open.

“Huh, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you up this early,” Sabine commented with a smirk, leaning over the counter with her head rested on her hand.

“I haven’t been late to school in weeks, Mom. You saw me up this early, like, five days ago.”

“I know, I know.” Sabine sighed. “It’s just… it seems like you were suddenly all grown up out of nowhere. One day you were sleeping past all your alarms and tripping over your own feet, then you wake up one morning and suddenly you’re organizing your schedule and helping out without exhausting yourself. I’m still adjusting to it.”

“Aw, Mom,” Marinette cooed. She felt a little bad—she had tried to make the change gradual, but training with Fu to get back to where she was before everything had made things more sudden than expected. “I’m still your kid, you know. I’m never going to outgrow you.”

They would have hugged if they weren’t a counter between them. Marinette smiled at her mother before looking outside. Félix was hovering by the door, right in view of the window, exactly on time.

“Well, there he is. I’ll let you know when we get there, okay?” _There_ was a library, fitting the cover story of helping Félix review some material that he missed the year before his transfer to the class. Sabine nodded and Marinette went out the door, a jacket pulled tightly around her to keep out the chill of the morning.

“Alright. Have fun, don’t stay out too late, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Marinette smiled, “I know, I know.” Oh, but if only Sabine knew. Marinette wasn’t confident on it, but she would bet that Sabine hadn’t spent her youth training to wield and control ancient magical jewelry with her replacement.

Félix smiled at her as she closed the door behind her and—there, right where his hand was shoved into his pocket, she could see Tikki peeking out and waving. Marinette waved back at the kwami before grabbing Félix’s free hand.

“Thanks for meeting up so early, Fé.” Marinette dragged him along behind her, taking the quickest path she knew to Fu’s massage shop. “I really hope I’m not ruining your weekend or anything.”

She couldn’t see it, but she could feel Félix shrug behind her. “I didn’t have anything planned and Mother is spending most of the weekend at work. As long as I’m home before she gets back for supper I’m fine. Besides, Tikki has been quite excited to see Master Fu and—Wayzz, was it, again.”

“ _Yes,_ Wayzz. He’s always been one of the more reasonable kwami. It’ll be interesting to see what he thinks about everything,” Tikki explained to Félix just loud enough for Marinette to hear.

Marinette smiled. When she was guardian, the _only_ guardian, the kwami that she had were excited to see each other and the world. Where Fu only let out the kwami if they were in use, she had made a point to circulate them so they wouldn’t feel so suffocated all the time. A mixture of hearing Tikki’s stories and seeing how the isolation got to Adrien in his later years made that decision all the more easy.

“He shouldn’t be keeping us for so long,” Marinette began. “This is just a scheduling session. Figuring out what we need to work on and win, making some contingencies for akumas and stuff—those sorts of things. We don’t even need him for everything, just the spiritual stuff.”

“So we won’t have to go there often after this?”

Marinette hummed. “Maybe. I’m not sure.”

If it were anybody else, she would have given the definite answer of _no._ Félix was different. It was why she had chosen him—his aura was more varied, more adaptable. She wasn’t sure how the old Order had worked, how they chose their guardians, but what she had learned from her studies suggested that true Miraculous holders weren’t good choices for guardians. Something always went wrong—that had been the case with Fu and the initial incident that took out the Order. It had been the case with Marinette in the original timeline, losing Chat and continuing until her teammates, her _friends,_ were on their last legs. Félix was different enough that he wasn’t the true wielder for any specific Miraculous—he just so happened to have the Ladybug right now and it worked well with him.

The conversation lulled until they were at the shop. The doors were left open and the soft, gentle scent of incense coming from inside made Marinette smile.

“Are you ready to meet the Great Guardian Félix?” A Grand Guardian, her mind corrected. It wasn’t the time for that—the explanation, the apology for hiding that for so long, would come later.

“As ready as I can be.”

Before Félix could finish speaking, Tikki had already flown inside to see her old friend.


	9. Princess Fragrance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited this chapter a month ago while I was locked in my room with strep, so let's hope this is good. I finally got good at Dark Souls which is why this took so long to come out. And school. School is a thing too.
> 
> Don't take three English classes in a day, kids, it isn't good for you.

It had been a long time since Marinette had last meditated. An embarrassingly long time. She could feel the stress in her muscles, her energy wrapping itself in knots from late nights spent worrying if she could fix things. That was what these morning trainings were good for.

She didn’t technically need to come. The sessions between Fu and Félix were to hone the younger’s skills. Sensing auras, reading people, understanding how to find the connections that tied the Miraculous to people. She had found all of it boring when the kwamis had explained it to her after Fu had moved on, but Félix easily took to it.

Her own training with Félix—spars, both hand-to-hand and with various weapons hidden away—usually happened after school or on the weekends if neither of them had anything going on. Fu had told her after Félix’s first lesson—which was extremely stressful with neither of them knowing how to work together yet—that she wasn’t necessary for the basic stuff. Still, it was nice to have this scheduled time to work on her own things.

It would be nicer, though, if she weren’t in the same room as the others—both of the guys as well as the two kwami.

“No, Félix, not _that_ one. Try to feel deeper and follow the cord to the heart, not the skin above,” Fu instructed as they meditated in front of each other. Marinette cracked an eye open—winced a bit at the bright lights of the room—and tried to hold back a smile as Félix’s face scrunched in concentration. They were working on following energy back to the source, something that Marinette had hated, and that Félix was currently struggling with.

“I am confident that we will get them back soon,” Wayzz said to Tikki. It was a completely different conversation between the kwami, one that Marinette had heard countless times before. As soon as Tikki had finished interrogating Wayzz about Marinette—how trustworthy she was as well as how she, a thirteen-year-old, had become a Grand Guardian—they had moved to worry about their abused friends. Marinette had already told Wayzz what she could about Duusu and Nooroo, but that information did little to calm the Turtle and Ladybug.

“I’m trying to grab that one. There are too many.” Félix, this time.

“The only appropriate time to get them would have been, hm, a year ago? If not sooner?” Ouch, Tikki, that one hurt Marinette a bit when the next decade came to mind.

“That is the point of the training, Félix. We need to refine your skills.”

“You can’t blame the children for that Tikki.”

“I know, it’s just frustrating.”

“Haven’t I refined them enough for what we are currently dealing with?”

“We just need to calm down and work with what we have. Once we—”

“Against Hawkmoth, we cannot prepare enough.”

“—have Plagg, we can better plan how to go about this.”

“Can’t we work on something else? We’ve been trying this all week.”

“Like Plagg will help any—”

Marinette stood up. “Oh my gosh, can you all shut up?”

Everyone obeyed and looked at her.

“You two,” she pointed at Tikki and Wayzz, “need to trust us. I know that we aren’t doing things perfectly, but we can’t just charge in and take the Miraculous back. Since you can’t do anything yourselves, you need to come to us when you’re worried. This is just getting ridiculous.

“And you need to calm down.” She turned to Fu. “We get it, you’re the Grand Guardian and the only one who can train Félix, but pushing him on this one thing won’t make things better. Let him learn something practical and then come back to the aura tracking when he gets more comfortable with the whole concept.”

There was silence for a bit before a soft, “And me?”

She sighed. “You’re the one who’s on-field, you’re the one who’s training. You know better than anyone—” she wasn’t about to push him along in his lessons, especially not when it came to the spiritual training with Fu, “—what you need to focus on. Let us know what we need to prioritize because _we_ are helping _you._ It isn’t the other way around, Félix.” Marinette turned around and started walking out of the room. “I’m going outside to think. I’ll come back in when we need to leave for school, Félix.”

She left before anybody could say anything.

Marinette knew that she shouldn’t be annoyed. They had just started the whole training thing. They were still trying to learn each other—their current skill levels, their limits, how to navigate through something that she, in the originally timeline, had struggled with herself. Félix was doing better than she had when it came to the training, and she was proud of him for that. But Fu couldn’t see the stress he was adding onto Félix with each of these lessons. The blond seemed more tired with every passing day, falling asleep during class and only waking up when called on—or when there was an akuma.

And the akumas, those were something as well. Something… well, not something good, but not bad either. Chat still had room to grow, but there had been an obvious change in Mister Bug’s fighting style since he had begun training. Chat had mentioned it, Alya had mentioned it, and the akumas that differed slightly in tactics from her memories seemed to suggest that Hawkmoth had noticed it as well. Mister Bug was quicker to react and more creative as he used his yoyo. Where Chat used to be on offense all the time, the two now switched more to fit with the situation. It was impressive to watch as a civilian, even as a bit of guilt rose in her for putting someone else in a position that she knew wasn’t easy.

Marinette sat down on the sidewalk outside the shop, her back pressed against the wall and her head tilted toward the sky. It was a cloudy day—gray skies all around and the promise of rain later. Sabine had told her before she left with Félix that it was supposed to clear up before collège let out.

“Oh my gosh, Marinette, what are you doing out here?”

Marinette jumped and looked around until her eyes settled on pink. A lot of pink. Rose looked down at her, a worried smile on her face and a white, frilly umbrella over her shoulder.

“Ah, hey Rose. I’m just getting some fresh air.” Marinette pointed at the doors beside her. “I volunteer here some mornings and today just… wasn’t a good day, I guess.”

“I see,” Rose hummed. “Well, if your day doesn’t get any better, do you want to come with me after school?”

This was new. “If my parents don’t need anything done for the bakery, sure. Where are we going?”

“Well, Prince Ali is visiting Paris today. He does a lot of work for children’s hospitals. I just… really admire him, you know? He’s done so much good for so many people and he’s still working to make the world a better place. He’s doing a fundraiser throughout the day and I was going to go help them!”

Now she remembered this. Poor, sweet Rose getting akumatized. Tikki getting taken by Chloe. Sneaking into Le Grand Paris to get back her kwami. It was a stressful day at the time, but she had had worse later on. The big question that day had been how to get Tikki back, cure her of her sickness, and avoid the controlled Chat Noir.

The sky opened up in sheets of rain above them and Rose adjusted the umbrella so it was covering both of them. “There is just so much that I admire about him. He’s already done so much work for people in need but he still finds time to work at what he is passionate for. I mean, Chloe could help people just like the prince does but all she does is spend time in the hotel. Prince Ali actually does this stuff.”

“He’s a great guy, Rose. I’ll join you if I can, okay?” Marinette stood up and glanced inside the shop. If she was remembering correctly, there was an akuma this morning with the rain. That would probably still happen—she’d need to warn Félix that weather like this could get Tikki sick. “I should probably head back inside. I’ll see you at school?”

Rose smiled as Marinette stepped through the threshold into dry shelter. “Of course! I’ll see you there. Try not to let your work make you late again, Marinette.”

Rose scurried off in a flurry of pink frills and light splashes in fresh puddles before Marinette could reply. She sighed and turned around—and was proud to say that she only jumped a little when she saw Félix behind her. “Jeez, Fé, you scared me. Master Fu let you take a break?”

“We’re actually done for the morning. He said that all this stress wouldn’t make for a good environment,” Félix hesitated before he continued, “and he apologized for pushing me so much.”

She nodded. “Good. I’m glad that he listened to me.”

Félix chuckled. “It was hard not to. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you get so heated before Marinette.”

“It was just a lot at once. If I had to sit through any more of that, I probably would have started fighting one of you.” She said it as a joke but the more she thought about it the truer it sounded. She didn’t have a Miraculous herself, not anymore, but she knew enough about the Turtle and Ladybug—as well as any others that Fu could have pulled out—that she could have taken them in a fight.

Before Félix could respond something crashed outside. It was far away, just loud enough to be heard but not close enough to be felt through the floor. They both frowned—Félix from confusion and Marinette because this didn’t give her a lot time to warn him. Their phones chimed in sync with an alert from the _Ladyblog_ about the new akuma.

“Be careful while you’re out there, Fé.”

“Yes, I know. You’ve warned me before that training like this could wear me out.” He started heading back to the training room to fetch Tikki.

“Not just that.” Félix froze at her words and she quickly explained, “Weather like this _can_ make a kwami sick. If that happens, you’ll need to bring Tikki to me or Master Fu as soon as possible, okay?”

He nodded with a serious look on his face. “I’ll be careful, Marinette. Don’t worry.” He walked out of the room and Marinette saw through the crack between the door and the wall a flash of pink. She hoped that was enough to keep Tikki healthy. Or, at least, to give enough instruction so that she could heal Tikki before Chloe gets her.

$$$

Félix stumbled into the classroom right before the bell rang, but still well before Mme Bustier usually entered. He was cold and leaving little puddles on the floor with every step and the shivering kwami in his pocket didn’t make things better. He felt _successful,_ though. The fight hadn’t taken too long once Chat Noir showed up only a minute after Mister Bug arrived on scene. After the akuma he had checked in with Tikki—Marinette’s warnings were usually warranted and had left him worried—but the kwami had assured him that she was feeling fine, just a little chilly.

Marinette, already seated and conversing with Alya, made eye contact with him and he nodded. She smiled at him and—

“Girl, quit making moves on him right before class,” Alya teased. “He’s still going to be there when class is over you know.”

Marinette’s face flushed red and he was sure that his face did the same as he took his seat beside Ivan. “Alya! That’s not—I wasn’t—it’s just… augh, quit doing that!”

Alya responded by punching her shoulder. Marinette didn’t flinch, didn’t even move, against the hit.

Félix looked around the room. Ivan was chatting with Mylène—more like sitting there and listening to her talk, but it worked for the two of them. Rose ranting about some prince visiting to Juleka and Chloe in the front was going on about the same topic to Sabrina. Nathaniel was still minding his own business as he sketched something in the back of the classroom. Alix and Kim were making bets about a later race while Max provided his predictions on who would win based on previous trials. Nino was paying attention to Alya and Marinette, something that he understood. Nino hadn’t started out close to the reporter, but they made a good couple now that they were better acquainted.

The only one missing was Adrien. It was unexpected but not completely worrying. Félix hadn’t heard about any new photoshoots involving the blond model, but Gabriel was notorious in the classroom for springing them on Adrien.

Félix nudged Ivan with his elbow, drawing the attention of the larger boy and his girlfriend. “What is Rose going on about it?” As close as he was with Marinette now, Félix still had his original group of friends to worry about. Rose was usually enthusiastic about the things she talked about, but this prince was new.

“Prince Ali is visiting Paris today and she’s excited about his charity fundraiser today,” Mylène explained.

“Is this the same Prince Ali that Chloe is going on about?”

Mylène nodded. “He’s staying in her father’s hotel. Mainly she’s just talking about how she’s ‘best friends with the prince’ and how much time they’re going to spend together.”

Adrien stumbled in before the conversation could continue, dripping more that Félix had and letting out a sneeze as soon as he sat down. He looked… worried. Félix wasn’t sure why, but he could see how all of Adrien’s friends matched his expression. Marinette looked more upset than worried.

“Oh my gosh, Adrikins, why are you coming to school when you’re sick? What is Gabriel doing to you?”

Adrien waved a hand. “I’m fine Chloe. I’m just not doing good with the weather, I’ll be fine after a little bit.”

“From _just_ the weather?” Marinette asked. Félix could feel Tikki tense in his pocket—there was some sort of message there, one that was lost on Félix. From the look on Adrien’s face, still unchanged, he missed the meaning as well.

“Yep!” The answer was high-pitched and quick, but there was nothing else said on it as Mme Bustier walked in, her papers and folders in their usual disarray.

“Alright, class, let’s get on with the lesson.” Everyone—well, everyone except for Chloe and Sabrina, but that was usual—looked up at her. “We’ll be doing an easy lesson since Mme Mendeleiev’s class is going to be more involved today, but that doesn’t mean that you have permission to ignore everything.” The warning was accompanied by a sharp glare—as sharp as Mme Bustier could manage, anyway, at Kim, who was already spinning his pencil around in amusing tricks.

And the lesson _was_ easy. They went over one of their old readings, something from last week that even Kim had breezed through with little to no issue. The only one who had been distracted—after Alix stole Kim’s pen so she could pay attention—was Rose of all people, who surprised Félix by pulling out her phone part-way through the lecture and watching a video.

Mme Mendeleiev’s class was as intense as Mme Bustier had promised. Nothing was as hard to get through—in Félix’s opinion—as Mme Mendeleiev’s “example” using Rose’s perfume. Félix had wanted to comfort his smaller friend—and from the look on Ivan’s face as she was sent out of the room, he wasn’t the only one—but there was nothing he could do against the strict teacher.

Classes ended for lunch and Félix gathered his stuff then joined his friends in the back of the room as they interrogated Juleka about what Rose had been doing at the time of the punishment. In the front of the classroom, Chloe stood up and cackled over something—Félix wasn’t paying attention to what, he tried to ignore the blonde and her assistant—before leaving the room. Marinette rushed out after her with Adrien not far behind. Félix didn’t even bother watching Alya and Nino chase them.

“What was she doing back here? I mean, I knew that she was on her phone,” Mme Mendeleiev had declared that for the rest of the class, “but that was all very dramatic…”

Juleka frowned at Mylène and shrugged. “Rose was watching a livestream about the prince and started writing a letter to him. That was when Mme Mendeleiev came up and did all,” she gestured to the front of the classroom where Rose’s perfume was still sitting on the front desk, “that.”

“It was all bad timing,” Félix reasoned. “If it were Mme Bustier, Rose would have been fine. The same applies if class wasn’t in session. Mme Mendeleiev has always been a bit harsh—there was no way Rose could have gotten away with this.”

Ivan nodded his agreeance and Juleka sighed.

Before the conversation could continue, the door swung open and Rose rushed in. She still looked upset, but not nearly as much as she had when she first got in trouble.

“Rose!” Mylène stood up and rushed forward to engulf her friend in a hug. Juleka soon followed in the motion, though with a bit more nervous hesitation, while the boys stood back and watched. “You aren’t in too much trouble, are you?”

“No, not at all. M Damocles just lectured me a little about the importance of paying attention in class. That isn’t what I came back for, though.” She sounded excited as she extracted herself from the hug. Rose moved around them and snatched her perfume from the desk, pulling out a pink envelope—the letter to Prince Ali—from her bag. “I saw Chloe on my way out, she’s heading to where the prince is staying. If I can give her this letter to pass on, then Prince Ali will know about me and how great I think he is before I see him at the children’s hospital after school!”

She rushed out the room, a flurry of pink ruffles and too-heavy perfume, before any of them could stop her.

“Oh, this is going to end badly, isn’t it?” Mylène worried. Ivan wordlessly nodded.

It had already ended when the group got to the front of the school. Rose stood alone, surrounded by pink shreds that fluttered and hopped in the light breeze. Chloe and Sabrina were already long gone, and Adrien was climbing into his own vehicle heading who-knew-where.

Ivan, Mylène, and Juleka rushed forward to try to comfort Rose. Félix nearly followed them but was stopped by Marinette grabbing his arm and holding him on the stairs next to her.

“You didn’t see it, Fé,” she sounded sad and worried. “She’s heartbroken. I would be surprised if she didn’t get akumatized before the end of school.” The message was clear. _Be ready to do something._

“What are you going to do?” he whispered in return.

Marinette glanced around for anybody close enough to hear them before responding, “Chat Noir’s kwami is sick and not currently in his possession. I’m going to try to heal him and get it back to our cat before anything goes wrong.”

And that only raised more questions. “How do you know all this?” followed swiftly by, “Why didn’t he take his kwami to you sooner?”

“Chloe has the kwami. Usually, they try to get back to their owners, but it looked like Plagg wasn’t at his full strength. Therefore, it’s likely he is sick,” Marinette quickly explained, pulling him down the stairs alongside her. “Chloe won’t hand him over to me easy—she thinks that he is a _toy_ and is planning to give him to the prince. If that happens, it’s a bad end for all of us. Chat still doesn’t know about me _or_ the guardian so he was probably waiting for a better time to bring him to us. There is no way Plagg can get to one of us without the help of Chat.”

“Or unless you get to him first, fix him up, and then pass him onto Chat as a way of revealing yourself,” Félix pieced together.

“Exactly.” Marinette let go of his arm and gestured in the direction that Rose had walked off during their talk—the opposite direction that Chloe had gone. “You take care of Rose as best you can, keep _it_ busy if it decides to show up, and I’ll work on helping the cat.”

“Got it.” Félix nodded and they split apart, Tikki watching Marinette from his pocket as he hurried in the direction of Rose.

$$$

There was something that Marinette should have learned from talking to Alix and Luka about their time-traveling. For every little thing that changed, something had to take its place. It was the same idea that made using the Miraculous for a wish such a bad idea. Wish for somebody to come back from the dead, someone dies in their place.

Warn one kwami against getting sick, the other one on the side of good gets sick and captured by the hands of a not-yet-Bee instead. Different scenario, same idea.

Seeing Adrien come in early was weird—Marinette didn’t think he came in until lunch on this day in the first timeline, but that was ten years ago and the akuma took precedence in her memory. Seeing Chloe hold up _Plagg_ like some cheap toy was even worse. The kwami looked awful—eyes glazed over, pelt just a little less shiny than usual, tiny limbs shivering just enough to pass as small movements in the breeze.

So that was a thing she would have to deal with. Marinette added that to her mental list of _Things Wrong with Today,_ right under the bolded, underlined point of _Deal with Adrien._

Adrien Agreste, her friend who had no idea that she was involved with the Miraculous. Adrien Agreste, the civilian identity of Chat Noir who—she knew from experience in the original timeline—had no experience with breaking into places and stealing things. He could maybe—and that was a _heavy_ maybe—get away with asking Chloe for Plagg, but that would be it. The blonde wouldn’t hand it over. She would throw a fit if Adrien just tried to take it, and he wasn’t confrontational enough to even consider _not_ giving it back if it were to happen.

Unless he was desperate—which he was. Unless he had help—which, if everything went well, he soon would.

Marinette had two options. Work around Adrien and surprise him with a fully healed Plagg. Work with Adrien and hope he trusted her enough before Plagg could vouch for her.

Marinette slowed as she rounded the corner to Le Grand Paris. Adrien argued with the doorman, who firmly held the door closed against the blond model.

“Miss Chloe has revoked your authorization to this building for today, sir. Please, leave before I am required to call the authorities and forcefully remove you.” Marinette managed to catch the doorman’s warning as she approached.

“Oh my gosh, Adrien!” Marinette cried once she was close enough. The two looked over at her and without a second thought she grabbed onto Adrien’s arm. “Do you have any idea how worried we all were when you rushed off like that? You can’t just do that without warning us, _especially_ when we have plans for lunch.”

“Plans for lunch? Mari, what are you—”

“I am _so_ sorry about him, sir,” Marinette swiftly apologized. The man seemed confused but nodded in response. Marinette immediately pulled on Adrien’s arm, used some of that Miraculous-trained strength to drag him and into the nearby alley. It was the same one she had found her disguise in. Hopefully, she thought with a grimace, she wouldn’t need to resort to the same methods.

“Marinette,” Adrien tried to pull her arm from her grasp, “where—why are you so _strong—_ where are we going? We didn’t actually have a group lunch, did we?”

“No, we didn’t.” Marinette finally let go of his arm and then pointed up the wall of the hotel towards the glass windows of Chloe’s room at the very top. “You weren’t going to get anywhere with Chloe if you kept going like _that,_ and I’m not going to let you keep trying and failing when Rose might turn into an akuma soon thanks to her.”

“That’s cool and all Mari, really, but why do you think I need your help? I mean, sure Chloe has Pla—my toy, but that doesn’t mean that this needs to be a team effort or anything. You don’t need to bother yourself with this.”

And this was the moment of truth—the moment where everything could fall into place or fall apart. It all depended on how smart Adrien was.

“I’m going to help you get your toy back for two reasons. Reason number one,” She dramatically held up a single finger, “you are _not_ as sneaky as you think—I’ve seen those tabloid pictures of you with terrible disguises on. If you want to get in there, you’re going to need my help. Reason two,” a second finger, “Rose will _definitely_ be an akuma before we get up there to Chloe. You can’t handle an akuma and stealing back your toy, so I’m here to back you up.”

A moment passed. Two.

“Oh my gosh, Mari, this is so cool!” Adrien practically squealed. “We’re like spies or something, getting back my kw— _my toy._ I can’t wait until Alya and Nino hear about this—we’re like your everyday Mister Bug and Chat Noir, aren’t we? Going in, getting the object, getting out without sustaining any injuries. Oh, this is so exciting I can’t wait to do this.” Adrien spun around.

“You are… way more excited for this than I was expecting,” Marinette confessed. “You’ll have to take this seriously if we’re going to do this right.”

“Right, right. Serious. Serious business, serious face.” Adrien stood still and saluted. “What do we do, Marinette?”

“We’ll need to sneak in. We can either use disguises or find another way in, your choice.”

“Oh, putting on disguises sounds fun, doesn’t it?” A new voice—female and unfamiliar to Marinette—chimed in. “Reminds me of my own days, sneaking around with my friends.”

Adrien spun around, his hands thrown in front of his body like it would protect them, and Marinette leaned around her taller friend to see the newcomer. Black hair pulled into a loose ponytail draped across her shoulder, a soft and teasing smile on her face, familiar gray eyes.

“Who are you? This is a top-secret operation. Civilians shouldn’t get involved.” Adrien shifted a little more so that he was in front of Marinette.

“Oh, I’m sorry about interrupting then. You both looked familiar—I thought you were friends of my son. He goes to school around here—you know Félix, don’t you?”

Adrien immediately put his hands down. “Mme Culpa! I didn’t realize that was you—I didn’t know that Félix lived around here. I am so, _so_ sorry for threatening you like that. I’m Adrien Agreste. This is my friend—well, Félix’s friend too—Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Oh please, Mme Culpa makes me sound old! Please, just call me Bridgette.” The woman stuck out her hand and Adrien shook it while Marinette studied the two.

She didn’t have the earrings anymore, but she could still see the faint fill of red over the woman, the black spots that showed that she was important to what they were about to do. It would be risky, drawing someone unrelated who couldn’t know about the Miraculous—Marinette just couldn’t spill the secret to Félix’s _mother_ after all—but it was better than digging through dumpsters to find disguises.

“Mme Bridgette,” Marinette took a step around Adrien. “Can we ask for a favor?”

“Of course! Anything for friends of Fé.” Bridgette smiled at them, a sparkle in her eyes that clearly said she was excited.

“That’s right,” Adrien cut in, quickly catching on. “We need to get into the hotel and get something back from a classmate of ours—has Félix talked about Chloe before?”

“Since you live here,” Adrien turned to here with a shocked expression, “can you help us get in? The doorman is being a bit of an issue.”

“Wait, how do you know he lives here?” Adrien asked.

“Félix told me when we were talking one day.” She couldn’t tell them that she had been over before. Bridgette didn’t know about that and Adrien would just draw the wrong conclusion.

Bridgette hummed. “Sounds suspicious… but I think I can do it. If,” she pointed at both of them, “you both keep me updated about Fé in school. He doesn’t… he doesn’t talk a lot, you know? It doesn’t have to be an everyday thing, but at least every week or so would do.”

“Agreed!” Adrien grabbed her fist in both his hands without hesitation. “Of course we can do that for you, Mme Bridgette! Thank you so much for doing this for us.”

And without Marinette’s input, “Of course, Adrien. Now, let’s get you guys properly disguised.”

Bridgette studied them for a moment before handing her bag to Adrien to hold. “Carry that like it contains the most important thing in the world. Work it like the little model boy you are, okay?” Adrien nodded and started carefully adjusted the purse. Bridgette turned to Marinette next and slipped off her coat before handing it over to the younger girl. “Just stay cute and important, okay Marinette? These aren’t the best disguises, so stay close to me and look like you belong.”

Marinette nodded at the instructions. “As soon as we pass the front doors, we’ll be good. The hard part is getting what we need from Chloe. We’ll either need to be insanely lucky or sneaky to get the _thing.”_ Something a classmate has for Bridgette. A “toy” for Adrien. A sick god of destruction for Marinette.


End file.
